An Opera Singer in the Kitchen

Dame Nellie Melba is probably remembered as much for the food she inspired as her extraordinary vocal range. Born into a musical family in Victoria, Australia in 1861, the young Helen Porter Mitchell became the most famous diva of her time, reigning over the Covent Garden opera scene for 37 years. She adopted her stage name, Nellie Melba, as a tribute to Melbourne, Australia and was made a Dame in 1918. This Rubenesque singer's love of food and her continual struggle to lose weight eventually led to the creation of Melba toast. Auguste Escoffier, the legendary cook at the Savoy Hotel in London, originally concocted this light snack of crisp, dried bread to feed the singer when she was ill in 1897. He also created Melba sauce for her (a sweet purée of raspberries and redcurrant), as well as Peach Melba and Melba Garniture (chicken, truffles and mushrooms stuffed into tomatoes with velouté). She died in 1931 at the age of 69.

Melba sauce, a sweet purée of raspberries and redcurrant.

The Peach Melba is a classic dessert, invented in 1892 or 1893, combines Nellie's two favourite summer fruits: peaches and raspberry sauce accompanying vanilla ice cream.
In 1892, Nellie Melba was performing in Wagner's opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden. The Duke of Orléans gave a dinner party to celebrate her triumph. For the occasion, the French chef Escoffier created a new dessert, and to display it, he used an ice sculpture of a swan, which is featured in the opera. The swan carried peaches which rested on a bed of vanilla ice cream and which were topped with spun sugar. In 1900, Escoffier created a new version of the dessert. For the occasion of the opening of the Carlton hotel, where he was head chef, Escoffier omitted the ice swan and topped the peaches with raspberry purée.

Other versions of this dessert use pears, apricots, or strawberries instead of peaches, and/or use raspberry sauce or melted red currant jelly instead of raspberry purée.

Melba toast is a very dry, crisp, thinly sliced toast often served with soups and salads or topped with either melted cheese or pâté.
Melba toast is usually made by lightly toasting bread in the normal way of making toast. Once the outside of the bread is slightly firm, it is removed from the toaster and then each slice is cut laterally with a bread knife to make two slices that are half the original thickness of the bread. These two thin slices are then toasted again to make Melba Toast.