History of the dish Lamb Noisettes with a Melba garnish, also includes history on Peaches Melba, and Melba Toast
The wide array of dishes that are ordained with the name ‘Melba’ can only be attributed to the supposed culinary delights of the great Australian Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931). Nellie Melba was a pseudo superstar of the nineteenth century, a famous opera singer that toured around the world and retained a status comparable to that of royalty. Perhaps the most famous dish named after her is the Peach Melba, although many calorie counters would argue that Melba Toast comes in a close second; and eventually the use of the word Melba in a dish also denoted the use of a mushroom, chicken and veloute stuffed tomato used for a garnish.
The story goes that while Melba was staying at the Savoy in London around 1892-1893, head chef Escoffier wanted to create a special desert for their illustrious guest, and thus designed the first prototype of Peach Melba. This version consisted of a swan of ice topped with vanilla ice cream and peaches, with a spun sugar garnish on top. The swan was said to have something to do with the opera that Melba was performing in while in London. Later in 1900 while creating the menu for the opening of the first Carlton hotel, Escoffier altered the recipe slightly, discarding the ice swan and spun sugar, and replacing them with a raspberry puree over the poached peaches and vanilla ice cream. Eventually the raspberry puree morphed into Melba Sauce, a combination of pureed and strained fresh raspberries, red currant jelly, sugar and cornstarch.
Escoffier paid attention to the gastronomic tendencies of his most famous guests and perhaps during Melba’s same stay at the Savoy (it is u
nclear whether it was in 1892 or 1893-or both) Melba Toast took its last step in the evolution of food history names. Melba toast is a thin slice of toast fried, and sans the butter. It was first created for Caesar Ritz’s wife when she flippantly commented on the fact that toast was never thin enough for her. Escoffier took this comment to the kitchen, and after frying up a regular sized piece of toast, cut it in half, and fried again, thus the beginning of this accompaniment originally named Marie’s Toast after Ritz’s wife. Escoffier heard that Dame Melba enjoyed her toast as well, and served his newest creation to her renaming it Melba Toast. Soon Melba Toast became a mainstay in dieter’s cuisine allowing them to cut their calories, and doubling as a platform when plating food.Somehow the name also became attributed to the use of tomatoes stuffed with a salpicon of mushrooms and chicken bound by a veloute sauce and used as a garnish for dishes with small cuts of meat as noted in Larousse Gastronomique. A salpicon is a combination of one or more ingredients, diced or minced, and bound with a sauce. Perhaps it was developed during the same time as Peach Melba, Melba Toast, and Sauce Melba or perhaps it is a play off of Melba Toast considering this particular dish also utilized croutons the same size as the Lamb Noisettes. There really isn’t even any documentation that this dish was ever served to Dame Melba, or whether she had a proclivity towards stuffed tomatoes. One would think that her culinary tendencies towards healthier dishes would exclude her from a veloute stuffed tomato, a rich and savory side, but we all have our moments, and history likes to keep its secrets…
