Peach Melba, pizza Margherita, Victoria sponge cake... Here are some dishes named after women as a tribute to them
There’s a story behind every person, it’s said. So is there a story behind every recipe. In older times, the royal kitchens often dedicated creations for special occasions to members of the royal family. The tradition was a beautiful way to pay tribute to those whom they admired and adored. Here are some recipes named after women.
Margarita cocktail
The story behind the naming of this cocktail is perhaps as heady as the cocktail itself, with many ‘Margaritas’ contending for it. These four are not the only claimants though:
Dallas socialite Margarita Samas said she invented it in 1948 for one of her Acapulco parties.
Enrique Bastate Gutierrez claimed he created the cocktail in honour of actress Rita Hayworth, whose real name was Margarita Cansino. Another version involving Hayworth is that the actress inspired a bartender in a Tijuana nightclub where she was a dancer before she took the name Rita Hayworth.
Carlos Herrera claimed he created and named the cocktail in his Tijuana restaurant for actress Marjorie King. It’s said King, who was allergic to all alcohol except tequila, had asked for something besides a straight shot.
Nevada bartender Red Hinton had also claimed that he’d named the cocktail after his girlfriend Margarita Mendez.
Peach Melba
It’s said that when French chef Auguste Escoffier of the Savoy Hotel, London, heard Australian soprano Nellie Melba sing at the Covent Garden, he was inspired to create a dessert for her, and which he named after her.
Ledikenis
Those familiar with Bengali sweets are familiar with Ledikenis, sometimes, also spelt as Lady Kenny’s – gulab jamun like fried chana balls stuffed with raisins. The sweet is named after Lady Charlotte Canning, Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria, and the wife of the Governor General of India, Lord Charles John Canning. One of the most prolific women artists in India, Lady Canning’s portfolios in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London contain over 300 watercolours inspired from four major tours in India. Canning’s popularity in Bengal is remembered in this sweet which was one of her admitted favourites.
Victoria Sponge Cake
Many dishes are named after Queen Victoria of Britain, but the most known happens to be Victoria Sponge Cake. While a recorded recipe of perhaps the first non-yeasted cake can be found in a 1615 book by poet and author Gervase Markham, the sponge cake came to be known as Victoria Sponge Cake as the queen’s said to have favoured a slice of the sponge cake with her afternoon tea.
Pizza Margherita
While many have contested with claims to have created the pizza Margherita, what’s believed with more conviction is that it was a dedication to Queen Margherita of Savoy. The queen was presented with this pizza in the colours of the Italian flag on a trip to Naples in 1889.
Tootsie Rolls
For the children born in the late 80s and early 90s, every summer holidays, among the many candies kept on top of the fridge were the Tootsie candies. A bag would always come home from visiting relatives settled abroad. Well, if the memories have been refreshed, here’s a titbit on the candy. Leo Hirshfield, the creator of the first paper-wrapped candy named it after the nickname of his youngest daughter Clara “Tootsie” Hirshfield.
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