ORIGIN OF FAMOUS DISH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24399, 10 September 1940, Page 10

ORIGIN OF FAMOUS DISH

Some day, when entertaining a friend, and eating crepes suzette, it would be very much in keeping as a morsel of conversation if you were to retell the story of the dish's invention. The scene was Monte Carlo's Cafe de Paris. The time, the gay nineties. The guest of honour. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. And what a moment of anxiety for Henri Car pen tier, 14-year-old kitchen apprentice, who had been deputed to make the sweet for his Royal Highness—Crepes Francaise. He shivered with nervousness, said the Australia Hotel chef in telling the story. Just at the critical moment, when his spirits and cordials were bubbling in the golden butter in his chafing dish, their aromatic fumes caught alight. •' I'm ruined," thought the panicstricken boy. his eyebrows singed with the flames. But suddenly his nostrils caught the bouquet from the dying flames. The Prince sniffed it. too. " What have we here? " he asked the boy. "Sir." replied the apprentice, his presence of mind now reasserted, a sweet never before served to anyone." "Its name," inquired the Prince. " Crepe Princess," invented Henri on the spur of the moment. "No, we will call it instead Crepe Suzette,'" answered the Prince, "in honour of one of my fellow guests." and he indicated one of his women friends. And so out of an accident to a simple pancake was made a dish which has delighted diners all the world over.