National Peach Melba Day Date in the current year: January 13, 2025

The peach Melba is a simple yet sophisticated dessert made with vanilla ice cream, peaches, and raspberry purée or sauce. Auguste Escoffier created it in the early 1890s while working at the Savoy Hotel in London in honor of Nellie Melba, a famous Australian soprano.

Escoffier came to prominence after meeting Swiss hotelier César Ritz in Monte Carlo in 1884. Ritz hired Escoffier to take control of the kitchens at the new Grand Hôtel, which Ritz managed. Since Monte Carlo was a winter resort at the time, Escoffier spent his summers working at the Grand Hôtel National in Lucerne.

In 1888, Ritz and Escoffier opened the Conservations Haus restaurant in Baden-Baden. Two years later, the English hotelier Richard D’Oyly Carte invited them to London to work at his new Savoy Hotel in London. Upon his arrival in London, Escoffier reorganized the kitchens at the Savoy and hired French cooks to introduce the British public to French haute cuisine.

While working at the Savoy, Escoffier invented many of his famous dishes, including the peach Melba (pêche Melba). In 1892, the famous opera soprano Nellie Melba came to London to perform as Elsa von Brabant in Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden. Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who was involved with Melba at the time, gave a dinner party at the Savoy in her honor, and Escoffier created a special dessert for her.

The original version of Escoffier’s dessert consisted of fresh, very ripe and tender peaches served over vanilla ice cream on a silver dish. The dish was placed on an ice sculpture of a swan, which is featured in Lohengrin, and the original name of the dessert was pêche au cygne (“peach on a swan”).

The peach Melba as we know it today was created a few years later at the Carlton Hotel in London, which Ritz and Escoffier opened in 1899. Escoffier slightly modified the original recipe by adding sweetened raspberry purée to the ice cream, along with peaches, and renamed the dish pêche Melba.

The secret of the popularity of the peach Melba’s popularity was in its combination of simplicity and refinement: it used simple, high-quality ingredients that tasted perfect together. Escoffier himself was against any variations of the recipe, as he felt that they would upset the delicate balance of the dessert’s flavor. However, other variations do exist: some versions use apricots, pears, or strawberries instead of peaches, or raspberry or redcurrant sauce instead of sweetened raspberry purée.

The origins of National Peach Melba Day are a little murky, and the choice of date seems a little odd, since fresh, ripe peaches are hard to come by in January. But if you can find some peaches (or a restaurant that serves the peach Melba at this time of year), be sure to celebrate! And don’t forget to snap a photo of your dessert and post it on social media with the hashtag #NationalPeachMelbaDay to spread the word.