Yesterday The Australian newspaper (the last of the real broadsheets, and the best newspaper in Australia!) ran a big feature on its back page about the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova who toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926 -- exactly 100 years ago this month.
She was a sensation, and the talk of the entire nation.
The result was that she inspired the name of the dessert we still know today as a ‘pavlova.’
However, the pronunciations of the ballerina and the dessert are not the same.
The dancer was Anna PAV-lah-vah while the famous meringue-based desert is pronounced pav-LOH-vah.
Both Australia and New Zealand claim to have invented ‘pavlova’—the dessert made of a large soft centred meringue, topped with whipped cream and fruit.
According to one story: in 1935, the chef of the Hotel Esplanade in Perth, Herbert Sachse, created the ‘pavlova’ to celebrate the visit of that great Russian ballerina (she had made a return visit in 1933).
On the other hand, the first appearance in print of the word ‘pavlova’ (meaning a dessert) is from New Zealand seven years earlier, in a booklet put out by Davis Gelatine called Davis Dainty Dishes.
However, since the ‘pavlova’ we now cook includes no gelatine, that is almost certainly a reference to some other dessert and not to the meringue based one that is known in Australia and New Zealand today—which was, indeed, a genuinely Aussie invention.
So, calm now Kiwis -- the pavlova is an Aussie invention!
At any rate, the origin of the name is not in dispute: it was named in honour of the great Russian dancer Anna Pavlova.
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BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
