Peach Melba

Escoffier created the dish in London in the 1890s, and it became one of the best-known desserts of its era. The classic version uses ripe peaches, peeled and often lightly poached in vanilla syrup, set on vanilla ice cream and covered with a sweet purée of fresh raspberries.

The raspberry sauce, sometimes called Melba sauce, is made by blending raspberries with sugar and straining out the seeds. Today the name also covers peach and raspberry combinations in other forms, such as ice creams, tarts, trifles and milkshakes.