Agaricus bisporus from its Latin name.
The mushroom as we imagine it with its plump foot and its well swollen cap. A delicacy that makes it the planet’s favorite mushroom since it alone represents 40% of the world’s mushroom production. One of the rare mushrooms that you can grow voluntarily in your garden. What Monsieur de la Quintinie did in the 17th century. At the time, Quintinie was in charge of the royal vegetable garden at Versailles. You can always visit it elsewhere and it is probably the most beautiful vegetable garden in France if not in the world. A place that provides the Court with fruits and vegetables of course, it is the purpose of a vegetable garden, but also a place of research. It is to him that we owe the domestication of pears, and the possibility of growing peas in the north, for example. And Monsieur de la Quintinie manages to grow mushrooms, which are not yet called button mushrooms, in the open air.
– By Paris Histoire — Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.
Set to grow in the quarries of Paris, hence its name…
100 years later, the Maraîcher Chambry had the idea of growing it in the abandoned quarries of Paris and the mushrooms liked it so much that the production became important. The real Paris mushroom is always produced in cellars cut in limestone, a limestone on which the mushroom takes its minerals which makes it succulent. It is still produced in Île-de-France but it is above all Touraine and Saumur that supply French production, which does not weigh heavily against Chinese production elsewhere. Delicious in a fricassee, in an omelet, but also in a velouté with cream, it can also be stuffed for an aperitif, for example. It also lends itself divinely to risotto or even a vegetable salad.
Health side
It is rich in protein but also in vitamin B, it would be good for the immune system and for the skin. Cooking is done with quite a few ingredients such as button mushrooms, but it is done above all with heart.