Peach Melba Day

What the day is

Peach Melba Day is observed on January 13. The dish is poached peach, vanilla ice cream and raspberry, and it was created for a specific person.

Origin and background

Auguste Escoffier made it at the Savoy in London in the 1890s for Nellie Melba, the Australian soprano, who was performing in the city. The original presentation was considerably grander than what survives: the peaches and ice cream were set between the wings of a swan carved from a block of ice, a reference to the opera she was singing. The raspberry purée that now defines the dish came later, when Escoffier reworked it for the opening of the Carlton.

Melba did well out of chefs. Melba toast, the very thin twice-baked slice, is also named for her, reportedly made during a period when she was unwell and eating little.

Escoffier is worth knowing beyond the dish. He reorganized professional kitchens into the brigade system of defined stations still used today, and his 1903 guide codified French cooking into a reference that working kitchens could actually follow. A dessert of three components in deliberate balance is very much his style.

The construction is doing specific work. The peach is poached rather than raw, usually in vanilla syrup, which firms the texture and seasons the fruit right through. The raspberry is left uncooked, so its sharpness stays bright and cuts the cream. And the temperature contrast between warm-poached fruit and cold ice cream is half the point, which is why the dish falls flat when everything is served at the same temperature.

How to take part

• Poach the peaches rather than using them raw, and peel them after poaching when the skins slip.
• Make the raspberry purée uncooked and strain the seeds out.
• Use good vanilla ice cream. With three ingredients there is nowhere to hide.
• Serve the fruit barely warm against cold ice cream.
• Use tinned peaches out of season without embarrassment. They are poached already.