Mirepoix (cuisine)
Similar flavour bases include the Italian "soffritto", the Spanish "sofrito", "refogado/sufrito" (braised onions, garlic and tomato) from Portuguese-speaking nations, the German "suppengrün" (leeks, carrots and celeriac), the Polish "włoszczyzna" (leeks, carrots, celery root and parsley root), the US Cajun / Creole holy trinity (onions, celery and bell peppers), and possibly the French "duxelles" (mushrooms and often onion or shallot and herbs, reduced to a paste).
Fines herbes
A living tradition, such as cooking, is always subject to variation and re-creation. For example, in his memoirs, the late Pierre Franey, former chef at Le Pavillon and long-time New York Times columnist, vividly recalled his trepidation when as an teenaged apprentice chef, he was ordered to prepare a simple ""omelette aux fines herbes"—three eggs, chervil, parsley, tarragon, chives—the first omelette I was assigned to prepare for paying guests, after a considerable amount of practicing on others." In his anxiety he almost spoiled the dish. Yet, in his accompanying recipe for Americans printed in the same book, Franey substitutes basil for the chervil, doubtless because especially in the United States, chervil, unless home grown, can be virtually impossible to obtain when fresh and is virtually worthless when dried.