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Sweets for the Sweet: An Array of Desserts Named in Honor of Women
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21066 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 2000 |
2,918 Words |
| Author
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Claire Hopley
Claire Hopley lives in Massachusetts and is the author of the
newly published New England Cooking: Seasons and Celebrations
(Berkshire House), featuring recipes from four centuries of
the region's cuisine. She last wrote for The: World & I about
heirloom tomatoes. |
When the Savoy Hotel opened in London in 1889, ladies did not eat in hotel restaurants or other public places. Chefs catered to men, making hefty roasts and substantial pies. Restaurants smelled of cigar smoke rather than delicious food or delicate flowers. Auguste Escoffier, chef of the Savoy, helped change all that.
Escoffier came from the south of France, where customs differed. He liked cooking for women. His food was lighter, beautifully composed, and presented with artful garnishes. Soon the elegant rooms and fine foods of the Savoy were tempting the actresses and singers who starred at the neighboring Savoy Theatre. The doyennes of high society followed. Escoffier was delighted and responded by flattering his clientele by naming desserts and other dishes after them.
The most famous of his desserts is undoubtedly Peach Melba. He created it for Helen Mitchell, better known as Dame Nellie Melba. She had chosen the professional name Melba in honor of Melbourne, Australia, her native city. When she triumphed in Lohengrin at Covent Garden in 1892, Escoffier made a swan of ice, filled it with vanilla ice cream, topped that with poached peaches, and served it with a raspberry sauce. Like all great dishes, it later underwent modifications, as chefs interpreted it in new ways.
Currently, Anton Edelman, who fills Escoffier's old position at the Savoy, serves Peach Melba en cage. He puts the peach-topped ice cream in a crisp pastry tulip basket, tops it with raspberry sauce, and covers it with a golden cage made from caramelized sugar. More often, Peach Melba is served in individual parfait dishes sometimes with a sprinkle of flaked almonds on top.
Escoffier, who claimed that he invented his best dishes "for the ladies," created a similar dish for the coronation banquet of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. This was poached peaches coated with strawberry sauce, served on vanilla ice cream, and garnished with crystallized rose petals. Apricots Alexandra are similar. For the French actress Sarah Bernhardt, he made Fraises Sarah Bernhardt: a dish of strawberries with ice cream, pineapple puree, and a curaao mousse.
Bernhardt was called "the divine Sarah" because of her slim figure and bell-like voice. The Danes also named a pastry after her, probably because one of her most renowned performances was in the title role of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Called Sarah Bernhardts, the pastries differ from the yeasted Danish pastries eaten at
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