Chef, Restaurateur. He was instrumental in popularizing French cuisine in Russia during the 19th Century. His signature creation "Salade Olivier" is known in the West as Russian Salad. It is still a favorite dish for Russian New Year's celebrations. Little is known about Olivier, who was apparently a Belgian with culinary training in France. In 1864 he opened the Hermitage Restaurant on Trubnaya Square in Moscow and it soon became one of the city's most celebrated fine dining establishments. Olivier's Gallic menu was customized for Russian tastes and his wait staff dressed in peasant garb; diners were informed that its French wines and cognacs had been rescued from Louis XVI's private cellars after the revolution. Although it catered to the Moscow elite, the Hermitage was also known for opening its doors to university students for their annual Tatyana's Day celebrations (January 25 in the Gregorian calendar). The lavish furnishings were removed, sawdust was spread on the floor and the liquor flowed freely all night, with the tacit approval of the Czar's police, who found this preferable to having students causing trouble in the streets. Among the notable events the restaurant hosted were the wedding reception for Tchaikovsky's short-lived marriage (1877), testimonial dinners for Turgenev (1879) and Dostoyevsky (1880), and Maxim Gorky's party for the cast of his hit play "The Lower Depths" (1902). On a grimmer note, Anton Chekhov suddenly collapsed while dining there with publisher Alexei Suvorin in March 1897; it was then that he learned he was mortally ill with tuberculosis. Olivier himself died prematurely but the Hermitage carried on until the Russian Revolution shut it down in 1917. The building survives and now houses Moscow's School of Modern Drama Theatre.