Vol-au-Vent

“Blown by the wind”

Antonin Carême — the early 19th-century French chef who codified what’s now known as classical French cuisine — is credited with naming the dish. Vol-au-vent literally translates as “flight in the wind,” reportedly because the puff pastry rose so dramatically in the oven that it seemed about to lift off. Carême was famously theatrical about his food, building elaborate edible architecture for state dinners.

The pastry, fully explained

Vol-au-vent is simply a hollow case made from puff pastry — laminated dough alternating layers of butter and pastry that puff dramatically in a hot oven. To form a vol-au-vent:

1. Cut two equal circles of puff pastry.
2. Cut the center out of one circle, creating a ring.
3. Stack the ring on top of the solid disc, with a thin egg wash glue.
4. Bake at high heat. The ring puffs upward; the disc stays flat as a base.
5. After baking, the inside of the ring is hollow, ready for filling.

Larger vol-au-vents (a bouchée à la reine — “queen’s mouthful”) served at the table; smaller ones served as canapés.

Classic fillings

Carême’s original was filled with chicken or sweetbreads in a cream sauce. Other traditional fillings:

• Bouchée à la reine — chicken, mushrooms, cream sauce, named for Queen Marie Leszczyńska of France who supposedly created it.
• Seafood — lobster, scallop, or shrimp in a velouté sauce.
• Mushroom — mixed wild mushrooms in a sherry cream sauce.
• Sweet versions — pastry cream and fresh fruit.

A signature of haute cuisine

Vol-au-vents are technically demanding — the pastry must be made carefully, the filling must be hot enough to serve but not so wet that it dissolves the pastry. They’re a marker of formal French cooking and rarely appear on casual menus, but they remain on the menus of classical restaurants and at French weddings, holiday meals, and state dinners.