Gaston Pierre de Lévis



Gaston-Pierre-Charles de Lévis-Lomagne, duc de Mirepoix (1699–1757), maréchal de France (1757) and Ambassador of Louis XV, was a French aristocrat. His family was established in Languedoc as Seigneurs of Mirepoix, Ariège since the 11th century. His chef de cuisine established the sautéed three vegetables that served as a basis for his culinary art, as a mirepoix in honor of his patron.

According to Pierre Larousse (quoted in the Oxford Companion to Food), the unfortunate Duke of Mirepoix was "an incompetent and mediocre individual... who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife and who had but one claim to fame: he gave his name to a sauce made of all kinds of meat and a variety of seasonings".