Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert. Originating in either Australia or New Zealand in the early 20th century, it was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Taking the form of a cake-like circular block of baked meringue, pavlova has a crisp crust and soft, light inside. The confection is usually topped with fruit and whipped cream. The name is commonly pronounced or (in North America) , and occasionally closer to the name of the dancer, as .
The dessert is believed to have been created in honour of the dancer either during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. The nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years.
The dessert is an important part of the national cuisine of both Australia and New Zealand. With its simple recipe, it is frequently served during celebratory and holiday meals. It is most identified with and consumed most frequently in the summer time, including at Christmas time.
Origin
A recipe for "Strawberries Pavlova" appeared in the New Zealand Herald on 11 November 1911, but this was a kind of ice block or sorbet. Annabelle Utrecht, who wrote a book about the possible origins of pavlova, believes that this is a reprint from England.
A 1922 book Australian home cookery by Emily Futter contained a recipe for "Meringue with Fruit Filling". This is the first known recipe for a food entirely resembling the modern pavlova, though not yet known by that name.
The first known recipe for a dish bearing the name 'Pavlova' is from Australia in 1926 published by the Davis Gelatine company in Sydney. However, it was a multi-layered jelly, and not the meringue, cream and fruit dessert known today.
Helen Leach, in her role as a culinary anthropologist at the University of Otago, states that the first recipe from New Zealand was a recipe for 'pavlova cake' in 1929. A recipe for pavlova cake was published in The Evening Star on 10 November 1934.
It has also been claimed that Bert Sachse created the dish at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth, Western Australia, in 1935. In defence of his claim as inventor of the dish, a relative of Sachse's wrote to Leach suggesting that Sachse may have accidentally dated the recipe incorrectly. Leach replied they would not find evidence for that "because it's just not showing up in the cookbooks until really the 1940s in Australia." However, a recipe for "pavlova cake" was published in The Advocate in 1935, and a 1937 issue of The Australian Women's Weekly contains a "pavlova sweet cake" recipe. A 1935 advertisement for a chromium ring used to prevent the dessert collapsing also indicates that the term "pavlova cake" had some currency in Auckland at that time.
Other researchers have said that the origins of pavlova lie outside both Australia and New Zealand. Research conducted by New Zealander Andrew Paul Wood and Australian Annabelle Utrecht found that the origins of the modern pavlova can be traced back to the Austro-Hungarian Spanische windtorte. It was later brought to the United States where German-speaking immigrants introduced meringue, whipped cream, and fruit desserts called schaum torte ("foam cake") and baiser torte. American corn starch packages which included recipes for meringue were exported to New Zealand in the 1890s.
Another story is that an unnamed New Zealand chef created Pavlova in 1926 in a Wellington hotel. Food anthropologist Helen Leach of the University of Otago was unable to verify that this was true. She found at least 21 pavlova recipes in New Zealand cookbooks by 1940, the year the Australian recipes appeared. She wrote the book The Pavlova Story. The first she found was a multlayered and layered jelly in 1926. In 1928 from Dunedin, a walnut and coffee-flavoured meringue recipe was created and became popular throughout New Zealand. In 1929 a third recipe was published in the Dairy Famer's Annual. Leach said that this third recipe was "stolen/falsely claimed by chefs/cooks across the Tasman".