Mahonesa
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By m.p. - Dec 30, 2008 - 8:43 AM
The story of Mayonnaise started in Menorca.

The Seven Years’ War fought between 1756 and 1763 was described by Winston Churchill two centuries later as the first ‘world war,’ involving all the major world powers of the time. It was fought on a global scale, with Britain, Prussia and Hanover pitted against France, Austria, Sweden, Saxony, and Russia. Portugal later joined in on the side of France, and Spain on the side of Britain.
The conflict, which saw up to one million people lose their lives, was fought in two theatres – Europe and the colonies – and encompassed the French and Indian War, which was fought from 1754 to 1763.

In Spain, Menorca had been captured by the British in 1708 during the War of Spanish Succession, and was officially ceded to Britain under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, along with Gibraltar. Britain had moved the island’s capital from Ciudadela to Mahón – Maó in Catalan, the co-official language on the Balearic Islands along with Spanish - whose 5 kilometre harbour is one of the largest natural harbours in the world. It had enormous strategic value for the British.
France sent a fleet commanded by the Duke of Richelieu, who was a nephew of Cardinal Richelieu, to take the island from Britain. His force of 15,000 troops took Ciudadela, and laid siege to the British garrison in Mahón at Fort St Philip, el Castillo de San Felipe.

The sea skirmish which followed in May 1756 led the British commander, Admiral John Byng, vastly outnumbered at the head of an inadequate fleet sent to relieve the garrison, to leave Menorca to the French and return to the defence of Gibraltar. He was later court-martialled and executed for dereliction of duty.
The garrison capitulated at the end of June that year, and Menorca remained in the hands of France until the end of the Seven Years’ War. It was returned to Britain under the 1763 Treaty of Paris.

It is said that the Duke of Richelieu first tried the sauce we know today as mayonnaise when he was on Menorca, and took the idea back to France. The popular story goes that he sampled it at a victory banquet which was held to celebrate the French conquest of the island, where his chef planned to prepare a sauce of cream and egg but was unable to find the exact ingredients. Some say that the chef invented the olive oil and egg mixture himself, while others believe he took his inspiration from a sauce he had seen prepared on the island. It was named ‘mahonnaise,’ – mahonesa in Spanish - in honour of Mahón.

The Nobel literature laureate, Camilo José Cela, has another tale to tell. The author speaks of a letter the Duke wrote to a lover, in which he mentions a sauce which he says will always keep her in his memory. Cela says in his article that he had never seen the letter himself, but was told it had been discovered in the attic of a house on Menorca.

He quotes, ‘… y por si fuese posible que yo me olvidase de vos, madame, esa salsa mimosa con la cual tantas veces hicisteis feliz mi paladar, se encargará de hacerme recordaros, y desde este momento os digo que, en la imposibilidad de darle vuestro nombre, le llamaré mahonesa.’
‘... and if it were possible that I should forget you, madame, that exquisite sauce with which you often brought such delight to my palate will keep you in my thoughts, and from this moment on, it being impossible to call it by your name, I shall name it mahonesa,’ - the word which is used to describe a woman from Mahón.

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