Day 13: Peach Melba

Peach Melba was created in the late 1800s by French chef Auguste Escoffier for famed Australian soprano Nellie Melba. The story goes that Melba loved ice cream but wouldn't eat it for fear that it would damage her vocal chords.


Escoffier mixed ice cream with peaches and topped it with spun sugar. His reasoning was that Melba could eat the ice cream with the added ingredients because it would not be as cold. Raspberry sauce was not added to the dish until 1900, when Escoffier redid the dessert for the opening of the Carlton Hotel.
In yet another instance of a national food holiday honoring a food that is not in season, we had to get canned peaches for our melba. But the dessert was delicious.

Sadly, Alex said he could not really taste the peaches- but the storebought raspberry sauce was divine. And I'm not sure the ice cream's temperature was really affected by the other ingredients- if anything, it froze the peaches and raspberries. But I would have the dessert again. When it's PEACH SEASON.
Just so you know, Escoffier also created Melba sauce, Melba Toast and Melba Garniture in honor of soprano Nellie. That must have been some voice (check out the above video and let me know if you agree).