In one of those odd turns of fate, the same person who gave her name to the thin, brittle,low-calorie toast also gave her name to one of the world'smost delicious desserts - though neither was her idea. Both were the creationof the French chef Auguste Escoffier.
In 1892, the renowned opera singer Nellie Melba was staying at the Savoy Hotel in London, where Escoffier was the head chef. He adored her as an artist and as a woman. In honor of her visit and her Covent Garden performance inWagner's opera Lohengrin, he created a special dessert just for her; It consisted of vanilla ice cream, covered with sliced peaches, set in the body of an ice swan whose wings glistened with a coating of sugar. As the ice melted, the sugar dripped onto the peaches. (The swan design used in the dessert was inspired by a scene from Lohengrin.)
The dessert was originally called Swan Peaches. Later, the chef replaced the watery sugar with a coating of raspberry sauce and named his creation Peach Melba.
Meanwhile, the day after she dined on his high-calorie dessert, Nellie advised the chef that for breakfast she wanted nothing more than plain toast cut wafer-thin. Escoffier obliged, of course, and later served the "lite" toast to other weight-conscious guests. Naturally, the devoted Escoffier also named the toast in Melba's honor. You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
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