• For those who have yet to experience its sweet bliss, pavlova, or "pav" as some call it, is a meringue-based dessert, quite similar to a cake, but with a crispy crust and soft interior.
• The dessert was named after the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova after her tour visit to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s.
The meringue dessert, crunchy and soft inside, is, most of the time, like the icing on a cake, covered and decorated with whipped cream. A characteristic element is represented by the fresh and brightly colored fruits that adorn the sides and top of the pavlova – strawberries, passion fruit and kiwi being some of the most commonly used fruits.
But why dessert pavlova? Anna Pavlova was a superstar of her day, adored and admired around the world. As a result, many chefs named their dishes after her: in France, there was pond chicken à la Pavlova, and in America, pavlova ice cream. According to the New Zealand story, the head chef of a Wellington hotel at the time created the dessert in her honor, taking inspiration from the ballerina's distinctive attire (tutu). Australians, on the other hand, believe that the pavlova dessert was invented at a hotel in Perth and named after the ballerina when a customer declared that it was "easy as pavlova".
Recipe variations
The first recipe "pavlova" published had nothing to do with meringue. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this first mention of a dessert called pavlova appeared in a 1927 cookbook called Davis Dainty Dishes, published in New Zealand by the Davis Gelatine company, but that recipe is for a multi-layer jelly.
However, New Zealanders claim that any documented pavlova recipe is proof enough that they invented the dessert, and that meringue pavlova recipes appeared on their small island shortly thereafter. Australians dispute this claim: even though New Zealanders are credited with the name, an Australian chef is responsible for inventing the real pavlova as we know it today, they say.
Numerous attempts have been made to prove the origins of pavlova over time. In addition to the mention in the Oxford English Dictionary, in 2008 Helen Leach published her the book The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand's Culinary History, in which he documented 12 pavlova recipes from New Zealand cookbooks, before the first recipe appeared in Australia in 1940.
In recent years, Annabelle Utrecht, a historian from Australia, and Andrew Paul Wood, an art historian and writer from New Zealand, determined to settle this culinary dispute, researched the history of the pavlova, and what they discovered—that meringue cakes with whipped cream and fruit doesn't come from any particular country – it provides a fascinating insight into how recipes travel around the world and transform in the process.
Assiduous searches
After a two-year effort of excavations through old recipes, the pair claimed to have found over 150 meringue cake recipes very similar to pavlova, all published before Anna Pavlova arrived in Australia in 1926! The search for the origins of this dessert was also complicated by the name. Oddly enough, Utrecht and Wood discovered a dessert called "Strawberry Pavlova" from 1911, before Anna Pavlova arrived in New Zealand. Even more unexpectedly, the Strawberry Pavlova was unlike any other dessert: it was a sorbet dessert, without the meringue. Their studies suggest that the true pavlova has its roots in Germany and America.
Thus, they found that pavlovas probably originated from small European meringues of the 17th and early 18th centuries, which later became a more complex and larger dessert known as Spanish Wind Torte highly appreciated by the Austrian Habsburgs. Instead of meringue topped with whipped cream and fruit, like pavlova, Spanische Windtorte has cream and fruit inside the meringue. Otherwise, they look almost identical.
As German-speaking immigrants moved to the United States, settling in the Midwest, they brought with them recipes for similar desserts such as Schaum Torte and Baiser Torte. Especially with the invention of the hand mixer for working eggs in the late 1800s, these and other meringue recipes seem to have become extremely popular among American housewives. Soon the meringue became famous enough to reach New Zealand.
The dessert recipe has come a long way
Wood and Utrecht believe that the pavlova recipe as we know it may have arrived in Australia and New Zealand on the back of a cornstarch tin. Unlike French meringue cookies, pavlova meringue often incorporates cornstarch, which gives it a meringue interior. So, as they still do today, an American cornstarch manufacturer, Duryea's Maizena, put a recipe for a pavlova-like dessert on the packaging and began exporting to New Zealand.
This cornstarch was imported from the United States to both New Zealand and Australia, and dessert recipes from this company could be found in New Zealand newspapers as early as the 1870s. These recipes may have inspired a first meringue dessert in the southern hemisphere, which was later renamed pavlova.
Pavlova isn't the only food the two countries claim as their own. "There are similar arguments about meat pies, Anzac biscuits and Lamingtons", Wood argues, noting that Australia and New Zealand have a relationship of "enmity" dating back to the First World War.
Professor Paul Freedman, specializing in the history of gastronomy at Yale University, calls the international culinary rivalries "an affirmation of identity". When a country "hold" a dish, anyone else who prepares it must prove their good faith by admitting it. So, for example, if pavlova comes from New Zealand, then their version is authentic, and all others are mere imitations.
A Christmas dessert
Even though New Zealanders and Australians are still trying to unravel the mysteries of pavlova's origins, it has become increasingly popular, especially at Christmas. In both countries, Christmas desserts have traditionally followed the path of their colonial origins, leaning towards fruit cakes, plum puddings and other savory dishes. Freedman says pavlova doesn't fit the archetype of the typical Christmas dessert. It is not "a particularly elaborate dessert, it doesn't take days to prepare and it's not like plum pudding, which is something that can sit for a month before being served", he claims. In Australia, it even surpassed it Christmas Pudding as a favorite Christmas dessert.
Utrecht explains that "the airy texture of pavlova counterbalances the heaviness of traditional Christmas meals and rich desserts". Then there's the fact that, for Australians and New Zealanders, Christmas falls in the middle of summer. "Let's face it, on extremely hot days in the southern hemisphere, pavlova is an acceptable option for a light dessert", adds Utrecht.
The link between pavlova and Christmas dates back to 1934 in New Zealand when the Municipal Electricity Department in Papanui, Christchurch included "pavlova cake" in a culinary demonstration that he offered in the Memorial Hall in Papanui. The demonstration was meant to introduce Kiwi women to modern cooking, and the pavlova meringue was the perfect candidate for using an electric mixer.
Undisputed popularity
In Australia, a similar dessert (though not called pavlova) was "Meringue with fruit filling" by Emily Futter, published in a Christmas recipe column in December 1921. Utrecht also notes that US First Lady Bess Truman and women in the US diplomatic corps added a small recipe booklet to the card for Christmas in 1949, which included the personal pavlova recipe of Mrs. Berendsen, the wife of the New Zealand ambassador to the United States.
In the end, neither New Zealand nor Australia can claim to have created the pavlova: they didn't invent the recipe and weren't even the first to name a dessert after the dancer. But they both have the credit of keeping this dessert alive, while all the other dishes called Pavlova didn't make it past the era when this ballerina was the biggest star in the world.
Article and photo sources: The Dessert Australians and New Zealanders Are Squabbling Over; The surprising truth about pavlova's origins; This Christmas Dessert Caused a Decades-Long Rivalry Between Two Countries; www.vintag.es.
Article written by Gabriela Dan, Editor-in-Chief Arta Albă
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