Boîte aux Lettres

From: Ryanne Owens, Monday, 16. September 1996, via Internet from the USA:

"You've never heard of me before, and, until tonight, I had never heard of you. I am a college student in Ohio. I am currently enrolled in a French class that is far too hard for me. We have been given an opportunity for extra credit, and I have been desperately searching the Internet for the answer to a question but am totally out of luck. I came across your e-mail address, and I'm hoping that you can help. If you can find time, would you please try to answer the following question for me?

"A 'croque-monsieur' is a type of open-faced grilled ham and cheese sandwich as well as some type of a coroner. How did the sandwich get its name?"

The Croque-Monsieur Whodunit

The 'croque-monsieur' is a standard snack in most bars and cafés. It is very much like an ordinary grilled-cheese sandwich, but with ham inside. It may have béchamel sauce in it, and the cheese may be grated and be on top instead of inside. There is another version, the 'croque-madame,' with an egg on top - also grilled.

Béchamel is a sauce of butter, flour, milk or creme and seasonings. It was invented by Louis XIV's steward, Louis de Béchamel, but I do not think they ate many croque-monsieurs at Versailles.

My wife does not know the origin of the name 'croque-monsieur,' nor do several people in her office in a downtown French bank. My neighbor, Inez - who was making 'croque-monsieurs' for lunch when I called - does not know either. My dictionaries do not know, but I was at a huge supermarket with a book section - it is school-book time - and none of their brand-new and large French dictionaries were enlightening; nor were a couple of special 'argot' dictionaries.

I did find this out, partly from the supermarket, and partly from a cookbook Inez has: in the novel by Marcel Proust, 'A la Recherche du Temps Perdu,' one of his characters, Albertino, orders a 'croque-monsieur' in a scene set in a restaurant. One dictionary said something about it being 'latino' and another said the term was first used by Proust. Inez told me the novel will put readers to sleep. I understand that Proust's work is highly regarded by some people - who are probably not action-oriented.

To 'croque' is like biting toast. But I think you have to imagine French bread - there is the baguette of today, of course - but something like sandwich bread, a 130 years ago - if it existed, was probably a luxury item and, of course, toasters did not exist until they were invented by Marconi. Ordinary bread was probably much more robust than modern bread - like the German dark breads - and I have 'grilled' modern versions of these myself in the mornings.

Today, an awful lot of sandwich bread in France is sold as packaged toast. This is strange because this sandwich bread is like 'Wonder Bread' and is hardly worth eating fresh, let alone as cold toast.

None of this explains how Proust managed to put the sandwich into his book. Did he make it up? Did all the café owners in Paris read it, invent a sandwich, then call it that? My guess is that it was a common item that had no particular name, or it had a name never before published - thus undocumented - and as Proust was the first to use the term in print - he gets authorship. All guessing, of course - but maybe enough for you to get a credit or two for it.

The origin of 'croque-madame' remains a mystery.