Peach Melba (, ) is a dessert of
peach
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...
es and
raspberry
The raspberry is the edible fruit of several plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the Rosaceae, rose family, most of which are in the subgenus ''Rubus#Modern classification, Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Ras ...
sauce with
vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia'').
''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...
ice cream. It was invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur, and culinary writer who popularised and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-A ...
at the
Savoy Hotel, London, to honour the Australian
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...
Nellie Melba.
[Avey, Tori]
"Opera, Escoffier, and Peaches: The Story Behind the Peach Melba"
, August 22, 2012, accessed 9 April 2015
History
In 1892, operatic soprano Nellie Melba was performing in Wagner's opera ''
Lohengrin'' at
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
. The
Duke of Orléans gave a dinner party at the Savoy to celebrate her triumph. For the occasion,
Escoffier presented Nellie with a dessert of fresh peaches served over vanilla ice cream in a silver dish perched atop an
ice sculpture of a swan, which is featured in the opera. He originally called the dish ''Pêche au cygne'', or "peach with a swan."
A few years later Escoffier created a new version of the dessert: when Escoffier and
César Ritz
César Ritz, born Cäsar Ritz (23 February 1850 – 26 October 1918), was a Swiss hotelier and founder of several hotels, most famously the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Hôtel Ritz in Paris and the The Ritz London Hotel, Ritz and Carlton Hotel, London, Ca ...
opened the
Ritz Carlton in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
(after both were sacked from the Savoy for alleged larceny, embezzlement, and fraud),
Escoffier changed the recipe slightly by adding a topping of sweetened raspberry purée and renamed the dish ''Pêche Melba''.
Variations
Other versions substitute pears, apricots, or strawberries instead of peaches or use raspberry sauce or melted redcurrant jelly instead of raspberry purée.
The original dessert used simple ingredients of "tender and very ripe peaches, vanilla ice cream, and a purée of sugared raspberry". Escoffier himself is quoted as saying, "Any variation on this recipe ruins the delicate balance of its taste."
''Pijama''
Peach Melba is claimed to be the ancestor of the ''pijama'', a dessert in
Catalan cuisine. 7 Portes, a famous restaurant in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
founded in 1836, is credited with its creation in 1951, when officers of the U.S.
Sixth Fleet stationed in the nearby harbor would often dine at 7 Portes and order peach Melba for dessert. The name mutated to ''pijama'' (,
Catalan for ''pajamas'') among the Catalan-speaking kitchen staff. From there the recipe, or the essence of it, spread throughout Catalonia. Variations are countless, but ice cream,
flan, and fruit in syrup (peach or
pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae.
The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...
) are its staple ingredients.
Though regarded as an extravagant and somewhat outdated dish today, the pijama was considered part of the corpus of the
Catalan cuisine
Catalan cuisine is the cooking traditions and practices from Catalonia. It may also refer to the shared cuisine of Northern Catalonia and Andorra, the second of which has a similar cuisine to that of the neighbouring Alt Urgell and Cerdanya ''c ...
and its recipe was included in the inventory published by the Foundation of the Catalan Institute of Cuisine and Gastronomical Culture.
Cultural significance
In tribute to Escoffier an elaborate deconstruction of the peach Melba was served as the last dish at
El Bulli prior to its closure in 2012.
See also
*
List of foods named after people
*
Melba toast
References
{{Nellie Melba, state=autocollapse
Food and drink introduced in the 1890s
Frozen desserts
Vanilla ice cream
Nellie Melba
French desserts
Peach dishes