The dish Peach Melba is named after a woman famous for what profession?

Nellie Melba often ate at Escoffier’s restaurants while performing in Covent Garden during the late 1890s and early 1900s. Escoffier claims to have first created the Peach Melba while Nellie was a guest at the Savoy Hotel, where he was chef. As the story goes, Nellie sent Escoffier tickets to her performance in the Wagner opera Lohengrin. The production featured a beautiful boat in the shape of a swan. The following evening, Escoffier presented Nellie with a dessert of fresh peaches served over vanilla ice cream in a silver dish perched atop a swan carved from ice. He originally called the dish Pecheau Cygne, or “peach with a swan.” A few years later, when Escoffier opened the Ritz Carlton in London with César Ritz, he changed the dish slightly by adding a topping of sweetened raspberry purée. He renamed the dish Pêche Melba, or Peach Melba as we know it here in the U.S. The rest, as they say, is history.