Croque Monsieur or Croque Madame

Croque-Monsieur or Croque-Madame were at the top of all the menus in the bistros, cafés and brasseries of Paris and often best-sellers before the invasion of burgers.  He appears the first time in 1910 in a café of boulevard des Capucines. Croque Monsieur consists of a ham sandwich with toasted cheese on top (emmental or comté). Croque Madame is the same but with an egg on top.

More and more often you can see Croq Poilâne named after the bread of baker Lionel Poilâne. It’s a large slice of black bread on which is placed ham, cheese (emmental or mozzarella), tomatoes… before grilling olive oil and Provencal herbs are added.