Béchamel sauce : a creamy white sauce made from milk whisked into a mixture of flour and butter which is sometimes enriched with cream.
Béchamel sauce was invented by and named after Louis de Béchamel, a French courtier who served in the court of Louis XIV. Béchamel died in 1703 but his sauce soon became a staple of French cuisine.
Beef Stroganoff : a dish of sautéed thinly sliced pieces of beef, served in a mustard, sour cream and paprika sauce.
In 1891, a French chef named Charles Briere, who was working in Russia for the wealthy and influential aristocratic Stroganoff family, won a St. Petersburg cooking contest with a dish he named after his employers. Beef Stroganoff quickly became a sensation, first in Russia and then in Shanghai, known in the 1920s as the Paris of the East.
Caesar Salad : a tossed salad comprising romaine lettuce, garlic, anchovies, and croutons and dressed with olive oil, Dijon mustard, coddled egg, lemon juice and grated Parmesan cheese.
The salad was created by an Italian-American restaurateur Caesar Cardini who ran the Hotel Caesar in Tijuana, Mexico. This story has it that during the Fourth of July weekend in 1924, when his supplies were almost depleted, Cardini concocted this salad with the ingredients he had available to him and it was an immediate hit with the guests.
Chateaubriand : a large centre cut of fillet of tenderloin, roasted and served alongside potatoes and a sauce, appropriately named chateaubriand sauce, which is made with shallots, beef or veal stock, white wine, tarragon and butter.
A cut of meat and a recipe for steak named for the French writer and diplomat, Vicomte François-René de Chateaubriand. His personal chef, Montmireil, is thought to have created the dish around 1822 while Chateaubriand was ambassador to England.
Crêpe Suzette : crêpes with a sauce of caramelized sugar and butter, orange juice, orange and lemon zest and Grand Marnier, triple sec or orange Curaçao liqueur on top, prepared in an elaborate tableside flambé performance.
In 1896, when Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, visited the Café de Paris in Monte Carlo, he requested that the chef, Henri Charpentier, create a special dessert for him. The flaming crêpes the chef brought out delighted the prince’s party and Edward requested that it be named in honour of one of his guests, a young French girl named Suzette.
Fettuccine Alfredo : a pasta dish made from fettucine pasta tossed with Parmesan cheese, cream and butter.
An Italian restaurateur, Alfredo Di Lelio, invented his recipe in 1908 for his pregnant wife, Ines. The dish became famous in part because American silent film stars, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbank, tried it on their honeymoon in Rome and took the recipe home with them it. The authentic Alfredo recipe contained only butter and parmesan cheese, not cream.
Margherita Pizza : a pizza made with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, salt and extra-virgin olive oil.
The renowned pizza chef, Raffaele Esposito, cooked three special pizzas for the Queen Margherita of Savoy and her husband, King Umberto I, when they visited Naples in 1889. Queen Margherita particularly enjoyed the one that was topped with fresh basil, mozzarella and tomato sauce to represent the colours of the Italian flag and it was named in her honour.
Nachos : heated tortilla chips or totopos covered with melted cheese (or a cheese-based sauce) and a variety of other ingredients like olives, jalapeño peppers, refried beans, sour cream, salsa and guacamole.
Named after Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Anaya, the maitre d’ at the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Mexico. He created this snack in 1943 for a group of US military wives who had been visiting from nearby Fort Duncan, Texas, on a shopping trip. They arrived at the restaurant when he was about to close so he improvised and cut tortillas into triangles, fried them, and topped them with cheese and jalapeños. The women were so delighted with the dish that it quickly spread throughout Texas.
Oyster Rockefeller : a dish of oysters on the half-shell that are topped with a rich herby sauce of butter, green herbs and bread crumbs which are then baked or broiled.
Created in 1899 at Antoine’s restaurant in New Orleans by Jules Alciatore, the son of the restaurant’s founder; this sumptuous dish was named after John D. Rockefeller because he was the richest man in America at the time.
Pavlova : a very light meringue-based dessert with a crisp crust and soft meringue inside, usually topped with fruit, berries and whipped cream.
Both Australia and New Zealand have claimed to be the source of this very popular meringue dessert. Anna Pavlova was a famous Russian ballet dancer and the now accepted story says that this dish was invented in the 1920s in New Zealand, when a chef at Wellington Hotel made this dessert inspired by the gifted and graceful ballerina’s visit.
Peach Melba : a peach half filled with cream, set on a bed of vanilla ice cream and covered with raspberry sauce.
Created by renowned chef August Escoffier at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1892, after he heard the renowned opera singer, Nellie Melba, sing at Covent Garden. The famous Australian soprano, whose real name was Helen Porter Mitchell , took her stage name from her hometown of Melbourne. The following evening, Escoffier created a special dessert for her, which resembled the swan boat in her opera, and named the dessert Peach Melba in her honour.
Sachertorte : a dense, moist chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam on top, coated in dark chocolate icing on the top and sides which is usually served with unsweetened whipped cream.
One of the most famous chocolate cakes, sachertorte was invented in 1832 for Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, the Austrian State Chancellor, who wanted to treat his guests to a special dessert. The head chef was not feeling well but a talented 16-year-old apprentice chef working at the royal court named Franz Sacher, stepped in and created this cake to great acclaim.
