National Crêpes Suzette Day Date in the current year: May 6, 2024

Crêpes Suzette is a dessert consisting of crêpes (very thin French pancakes) and a sauce named beurre Suzette. The French word beurre means “butter”, and butter is indeed one of the principal ingredients of the sauce. Other ingredients include caramelized sugar, orange or tangerine juice, citrus zest, and orange-flavored liqueur such as Grand Marnier, triple sec or Curaçao.

The sauce is poured over the crêpes and flambéed before serving. In other words, the sauce is ignited tableside, resulting in a flare of blue-tinged flame. Flambéing makes for a dramatic presentation and burns off some of the alcohol in the dessert, reducing its content while preserving the bitter orange flavor.

According to the most popular account of the origin of the dessert, Crêpes Suzette was invented by Henri Charpentier, a then 14-year-old assistant waiter at Café de Paris in Monte Carlo. He was preparing crêpes for Edward, Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII) when the cordials accidentally caught fire. When the fire burned out, Charpentier tasted the syrup and discovered that it had the perfect flavor.

Charpentier served the dessert, and the prince asked him about its name. Charpentier named the dish Crêpes Princesse, but Edward asked him to rename it Crêpes Suzette after a young French lady in attendance.

Although the story was told by Charpentier himself in his autobiography, it is often disputed because an assistant waiter could neither make the dish nor serve the prince. At 14 years old, Charpentier would have been too young to be the maître d’hôtel. In the 1950s, Charpentier gave an interview where he explained that the dish was a more sophisticated version of crêpes with fruit sauce that his foster mother used to make on special occasions.

Another account claims that the dessert was named in honor of Suzanne Reuchenberg, a French actress whose professional name was Suzette. In 1897, she played a maid in one of the plays staged at the Comédie-Française. The role included her serving crêpes on stage. The caterer who provided the crêpes decided to flambée them to wow the audience and keep the crêpes warm for the actors who had to eat them onstage. He decided to name the dish after the actress.

Be that as it may, Crêpes Suzette has been a staple at French restaurants since the late 19th century. The dessert is popular outside France as well, so it is not surprising that Americans, who love their food days, celebrate National Crêpes Suzette Day every May 6.

The best way to celebrate the holiday is to indulge in delicious crêpes at the nearby French restaurant. You can also try cooking the dessert yourself, but in this case, you need to be absolutely sure that flambéing won’t get out of hand. Either way, don’t forget to snap a photo of your Crêpes Suzette and share it on social media with the hashtag #NationalCrêpesSuzetteDay to spread the word about the dessert and the holiday.