Gastro Nerd - Foods named after people
Foods named after people.
1. BECHAMEL SAUCE was created by chef François Pierre de la Varenne, a court chef during King Louis XIV's reign (1643-1715). He is thought to have dedicated the sauce to Marquis Louis de Bechameil, a financier who held the honorary post of chief steward in King Louis' household.
2. TARTE TATIN First created by accident in 1889 at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France. Legend has it that Stephanie Tatin - who ran the hotel with her sister, Caroline - was making an apple pie but left the apples cooking for too long. In an effort to rescue the dish, she covered the pan of apples with the pastry base, then placed the whole pan in the oven to quickly finish the cooking, before turning out the upside-down tart. The guests loved it - and the tarte, right, became a signature dish of the hotel.
3. PÊCHE MELBA This hails back to 1892 and was created by Auguste Escoffier, of London's Savoy Hotel. He wanted to create a dessert specifically for the famous Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, who he had heard perform at Covent Garden. She loved ice cream, but feared that the coldness of it would affect her vocal cords so didn't eat it often. As Pêche Melba contained more than just ice cream, the dessert was not as cold and so wouldn't pose a threat to her vocal cords.
4. CAESAR SALAD This classic was first plated up in the 1920s by Caesar Cardini, a restaurateur and chef in Tijuana, Mexico. Stories abound as to how the salad came about. One suggests that bad weather played a part; the Prince of Wales being forced to remain in Tijuana and Caesar having to prepare a dish for him with what he had left in his kitchen.
5. THE SANDWICH This is named after the fourth Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, who lived in the Kentish village in the 18th century. He was fond of the sarnie because it allowed him to continue gambling - for which he had a passion - while eating.
6. BEEF WELLINGTON Another dish that takes its name from the nobility. The Duke of Wellington, who won the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, had little passion for food except for one particular dish: beef, mushrooms, truffles, Madeira wine and pâté cooked in pastry. The dish was named in his honour, perhaps due to its resemblance - when a large Beef Wellington is cooked - to a riding or Wellington boot.
7. SAINT-HONORÉ This Parisian gâteau is named after the patron saint of bakers and pastry cooks, though some believe that it also takes its name from a street in the French capital; 19th century pastry cook Chiboust created the cream that fills the inside of the choux crown in this dessert, and set up business in the Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris.
8. PAVLOVA This first began appearing after Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926. One theory is that a chef in Wellington devised the dish inspired by her tutu, draped in green silk cabbage roses; the meringue case resembled the tutu, whipped cream suggested the skirt and kiwi fruit represented the green roses.
9. PIZZA MARGHERITA Popular pizza chef Raffaele Esposito was called to the Italian palace in 1889 by King Umberto I and his wife, Queen Margherita di Savoia, who wanted to taste his specialities. He made three kinds of pizza, one featuring mozzarella, basil and tomatoes - the colours of the Italian flag. The Queen liked this so much that she sent a thank-you letter to Esposito who dedicated his speciality to her.
10. BEEF STROGANOFF was the prizewinning recipe created for a cooking competition in the 1890s in St Petersburg, Russia, by a chef who worked for the Russian diplomat Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov, a member of one of Russia's grandest noble families.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org and Larousse Gastronomique
