Pavlova

Crisp on the outside, soft like marshmallow inside — and unresolved between Australia and New Zealand for nearly a century.

Origin

The pavlova is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova , who toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926 and again in 1929. Both countries claim to have invented the dessert in her honor — and both are correct that something called pavlova started appearing in their cookbooks around then.

The earliest fully-documented recipe with the modern marshmallow-interior meringue base is from chef Bert Sachse at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth , Australia, in 1935. New Zealand food historian Helen Leach has documented earlier candidates in The Pavlova Story (Otago University Press, 2008), pushing the origin to 1920s Wellington. The argument is unresolved and probably unresolvable.

What it is

A French-meringue base — egg whites whipped with sugar to stiff peaks — stabilized by a small amount of vinegar (or cream of tartar) and cornflour. Baked at low heat for over an hour, then cooled in the oven, the result is a shell with a crisp, papery exterior and an interior that stays soft and chewy , almost marshmallow-like.

The shell is then crowned with whipped cream and topped with fruit. The classical Antipodean topping is kiwifruit, passion fruit pulp, and strawberries — bright, acidic fruit to cut through the sweetness of the base.

Cultural context

The pavlova is a centerpiece dessert in both countries — a fixture at Christmas dinners (where it doubles as a stand-in for English fruitcake in the southern-hemisphere summer), Australia Day and Waitangi Day spreads, and family birthdays. The size is shareable: a single pavlova feeds eight to twelve.

The diplomatic history is unsettled enough that the Oxford English Dictionary updated its pavlova entry in 2010 to credit New Zealand as the country of origin, prompting a brief Australian protest in newspapers. Both countries continue to claim it, and both continue to make it well.

Variations

The single-serve version of the pavlova is Eton mess — broken meringue, cream, and strawberries served loose in a glass. The Italian meringata uses the same meringue logic but freezes the assembled dessert into a frozen cream cake. The American baked Alaska shares the meringue exterior but encloses ice cream rather than cream and fruit.

Modern restaurants have run with the pavlova as a deconstructed plate — quenelles of cream, broken meringue shards, and a wider fruit vocabulary including raspberry, mango, fig, and pomegranate. Yotam Ottolenghi’s pavlova at NOPI helped push the dessert out of its retro 1980s reputation.

How it’s made

Egg whites are whipped to soft peaks before sugar is added gradually — too fast and the meringue weeps when baked . Vinegar and cornflour stabilize the foam: vinegar denatures the protein gently , cornflour traps moisture in the interior so it stays soft.

The bake is low and slow — 120°C for 90 minutes is typical — then the oven is turned off and the meringue cools inside, sometimes overnight. Cracking on the surface is normal and expected; a perfectly smooth pavlova suggests the inside is dry. The cream and fruit go on at the very last moment, otherwise the meringue absorbs moisture and collapses.

References

Helen Leach ’s The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History (2008) is the standard scholarly account. The Bert Sachse claim is documented in Australian Women’s Weekly archives from 1935 onward. The OED’s 2010 attribution remains the most cited dictionary verdict.