There are so many obvious ways to start this post. “Well, isn’t that just peachy?” or “Peachy keen!” or something like that. But as I say – they are so obvious. Why not start the whole thing by mentioning that Ms. Melba (for whom Peach Melba is named) was apparently an a-class pain in the neck. Now you won’t find that tidbit on the Wikipedia page for Peach Melba but the page about Nellie Melba herself lays it out pretty clearly.

If a singer’s greatness can be gauged by how detested she was by colleagues, then Melba would undoubtedly be the greatest singer of all time.

That said – her singing impressed Escoffier enough for him to bother inventing a dessert for her and stick her name on it. He is entitled to his opinions like everyone else and he certainly knew how to create a dessert so let us not judge the eponymous dessert by it’s namesake. Let us judge it by it’s taste.

If you are lucky enough to have a restaurant near you with peach Melba on the menu – this will be easy. But I confess it has been quite a while since I’ve seen such a thing on any menu. It’s a bit – um – not fussy, exactly. Because it’s not really that fussy logistically – it’s mostly an assembly job when all is said and done. It’s just that it has an old-fashiony sort of reputation – and you know how restaurants are.

Nigella has a peach melba recipe as does PeachRecipes.net (which I can’t believe exists as a site but there it is). On the PBS site, I found something called Grilled Peach Melba and I must admit, this is the next peach Melba I intend to try. Yum! For those who don’t care for ice cream particularly, you might try replacing the ice cream with a meringue. Oh! Possibly a slightly lemony infused meringue. Or an orange-scented one. Something you can zest. (Note to self – try it.)

So remember, even annoying people can inspire a good dessert. Happy National Peach Melba day.

P.S. – and yes, Melba toast was named for her as well. Did toast need someone of Escoffier’s magnitude to create it? Who knows. But he did.  And César Ritz named it. So from a name-dropping standpoint, it is even stronger than the flashier dessert created 20 years before