Pavlova is a
meringue dessert named after the
Russian ballet dancer,
Ánna Pávlova.
The dessert is believed to have been created to honour the dancer during or after one of her tours to
Australia and
New Zealand. The exact location of its first creation and the nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two countries for many years, however more serious research into the matter indicates New Zealand as source of today's pavlova.
[3]
Some sources say the recipe originated in
New Zealand, while others claim it was invented in
Australia. However, like the
Anzac biscuit[4], the earliest known books containing the recipe were published in
New Zealand.
Professor Helen Leach, a culinary anthropologist at the
University of Otago in New Zealand found a pavlova recipe in a 1933
Rangiora Mothers' Union cookery book.
[1] Professor Leach also has an even earlier copy of the pavlova recipe from a 1929 rural New Zealand magazine,
[1] New Zealand Dairy Annual (1929).
[3]
Keith Money, a biographer of
Anna Pavlova, wrote that a New Zealand chef in a hotel in
Wellington, New Zealand, created the dish when Pavlova visited there in 1926 on her world tour.
[5]
The claim that it was an Australian invention states that the pavlova is based on a cake baked by Bert Sachse at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth on October 3, 1935,[
citation needed] significantly later than the New Zealand claim.
