National Crepe Suzette Day

Five Food Finds about Crepe Suzette

  • The most common way to make Crêpe Suzette is to pour liqueur (usually Grand Marnier) over a freshly-cooked crêpe with sugar and light it.
  • This will make the alcohol in the liqueur evaporate, resulting in a fairly thick, caramelised sauce. In a restaurant, a Crêpe Suzette is often prepared in a chafing dish in full view of the guests.
  • The origin of the dish and its name is somewhat disputed. One claim is that the dish was created out of a mistake made by a fourteen year-old assistant waiter Henri Charpentier in 1895 at the Maitre at Monte Carlo’s Café de Paris. He was preparing a dessert for the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, whose guests included a beautiful French girl named Suzette.
  • Different sources (like the Larousse Gastronomique) however doubt that Charpentier was serving the prince instead of the head waiter because he would have been too young.
  • The other claim states Crêpes Suzette was named in honor of French actress Suzanne Reichenberg (1853–1924), who worked professionally under the name Suzette.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

  • 1806 Chapin Aaron Harris was born. He was cofounder of the first dental school in the world, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery.
  • 1833 John Deere developed the first steel plow.
  • 1851 John Gorrie patented an ice making machine, the first U.S. patent for a mechanical refrigerator.
  • 1862 RIP Henry David Thoreau, American author, philosopher, and naturalist. Author of ‘Walden; or, Life in the Woods.’
  • 1898 Daniel Gerber of baby food fame was born.
  • 1905 Toots Shor, restaurateur was born.
  • 1940 John Steinbeck receives the Pulitzer Prize for his novel ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’
  • 1959 Icelandic gunboats fired on British trawlers during their ‘Cod War’ over fishing rights