A lavish grande-cuisine roast: a saddle or loin of veal is roasted, sliced, then reassembled with a layer of soubise (onion purée) and duxelles (finely chopped mushroom) spread between each slice. The reformed roast is masked in Mornay sauce, dusted with cheese, and gratinéed until golden. It is one of the great showpiece dishes of 19th-century French chefs, plated whole and carved at the table. Few dishes pack as many classical preparations — roast, soubise, duxelles, Mornay — into a single course.
The dish is attributed to Urbain Dubois (1818–1901), a leading French chef of the 19th century who, with Émile Bernard, helped popularize service à la russe (serving courses in sequence rather than all at once). Dubois cooked for Russian aristocracy, and he created the dish — 'selle de veau Orloff' — for Prince Alexei Orlov, a Russian statesman and diplomat. The attribution to Dubois and the Orlov dedication are well documented in the classical literature, though the exact date is not pinned down. It reflects the era's taste for elaborate composed roasts.
A whole roast that, sliced, reveals stripes of pale veal banded with dark mushroom duxelles and pale onion soubise, the lot blanketed in a glossy, gold-spotted Mornay crust. The veal is tender and mild, the soubise sweet and silky, the duxelles deeply savory, the cheese sauce rich and lightly browned. Each forkful carries all four layers at once. If the gratin browned but the centre is cool, it was assembled too cold before going under the heat.
The dish is an exercise in building moisture and savor around lean veal, which is mild and dries easily. Soubise — onions slowly stewed and puréed, often with rice or béchamel — and duxelles — mushrooms cooked down until their water is driven off and the flavor concentrated — are spread between the slices to season the meat from within and keep it moist. The Mornay (béchamel enriched with Gruyère) seals the reformed roast, and the final gratin browns the cheese proteins via Maillard for a golden crust. The roast is sliced and rebuilt because the layers cannot be inserted into a whole joint.
Variations
The classic uses a saddle or loin of veal; some kitchens substitute pork loin, and the same method works for chicken breast. Soubise is sometimes lightened or replaced with a mushroom-only layer. A simpler home version omits the slice-by-slice assembly and simply tops sliced roast veal with soubise, duxelles and Mornay before gratinéing.
On the Palate
Where Veau Orloff sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
7 steps · 1 hour 15 min active + 1 hour 15 min waiting
- 160 min
Roast the seasoned saddle or loin of veal until just cooked through; rest, then slice across into even slices.
- 230 min
Make the soubise: stew sliced onions gently in butter until soft and sweet, then purée (binding with a little béchamel or rice).
- 320 min
Make the duxelles: cook finely chopped mushrooms and shallot until all the moisture has evaporated and they are dark and dry.
Watch outCook the duxelles until every bit of moisture is gone and it's dark and dry — put it in wet and it steams the roast and thins the layers.
- 412 min
Make a Mornay sauce: thicken milk with a butter-flour roux, then melt in grated Gruyère.
- 515 min
Reassemble the roast on an ovenproof dish, spreading soubise and duxelles between each slice and pressing back into shape.
- 65 min
Mask the whole roast with Mornay sauce and dust generously with grated cheese.
- 718 min
Gratiné in a hot oven until the surface is golden and bubbling; carve at the table.
Watch outGratiné in a hot oven only until the surface is golden and bubbling — the lean veal's already cooked, so this is just to brown the Mornay, not dry the meat.
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