What's in a name?

I want to share an article that I've read from Food Magazine, entitled Desserts of the Rich and Famous by Eufemia C. Estrada.

Pastries with catchy names like Madonna and Mozart never fail to grab a prospective diner's interest. What is a Chocolate Madonna or a Mozart and why are they so named?

I have dug up a list of such dishes inspired by some personality, a dog (yes, a dog), a place and even a child's toy. Here's a sample:
Marcel Desaulniers of Death by Chocolate fame has his Chocolate Madonna, which is made up of "chocolate bustiers, thin wafer-like cakes which are flat when they are taken out of the oven but soon turn "voluptuous" as they are wrapped around cream horn forms and drizzled with dark and white chocolate for a zebra effect. Once shaped, these are placed in raspberry mounds.

A children's toy, the Mikado, the French equivalent of the American pick-up sticks inspired Francois Payard of New York to create Chocolate Mikado Cake. This cake is topped with chocolate "cigarettes" which look like pick-up sticks.

Payard has also created Gateau Alexandra, which he named after his wife. A three-layer cake, it is made of chocolate Swiss meringue with the chocolate mousse filling topped with fingers of meringue.

Gateau Saint Honore, an excellent dessert consisting of a pate choux base with rich patisserie filling, is named after the patron saint of pastry chefs and bakers

A chocolate pound cake with a filling of apricot and raspberry marmalade covered with cocoa frosting commemorates Napoleaon's defeat by the Hapburgs of Austria and their allies in the Napoleonic wars and is aptly named Napoleon Torte.

In the book Desserts by Pierre Herme, the great composer Mozart has been immortalized in the culinary world with a cinnamon almond pastry with sweet chocolate mousse. It is said that when diners bite into a Mozart, they will "taste the chocolate first, cinnamon next, and then the apples."

Senior citizens will remember Ann Sheridan, the red-haired actress and World-War II pin-up girl who was known as "the Oomph girl." A cherry sundae, Oomph Girl a la Mode, is named for her honor.

Othello is a British pastry named for the Moor in Shakespeare's Othello. It is made of two round cookies sandwiched together with chocolate butter cream and coated completely with chocolate fondant.

The familiar Pavlova is an Australian creation i honor of Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova. It is a baked meringue layer topped with whipped cream and a combination of tropical fruit, traditionally passion fruit and pineapple. But any compatible combination such mango, fresh orange section and canned pineapple will do.

The French chef Auguste Escoffer created the Peach Melba for opera singer Nellie Melba. It is a dessert made with poached peach halves, vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce.

The Riviera is made up of thin and chewy layers of flourless chocolate cake with filling of dark, bittersweet mousse and a sunshine yellow cream. Another creation of Pierre Herme.

American chef Anne Rosenweig has created a cake inspired by the dog with many folds of skin—the Shar-Pei. Individual servings of devil’s food cake are draped with rich chocolate topping that falls in loose folds just like the topping that many folds. That is the Shar-Pei Cake.

Tyler Pudding Pie, named after American president John Tyler is a popular dessert in the South (U.S.A). It is made with brown sugar, butter, cream and eggs topped with grated coconut.

Aside from these there’s also a candy and an apple named for a personality. Baby Ruth, a popular chocolate candy, was not named after the great baseball player as many mistakenly think, but after the daughter of President Grover Cleveland. The Granny Smith apple is named for an Australian gardener, Maria Ann Smith. The Granny Smith is a good all-purpose apple but is especially suited for apple pies with its tart, sweet flavor and firm flesh.

Ground almonds take the place of flour in this queen of flourless cakes. Queen Mother’s Cake is so named because when the Queen Mother of England tasted it she liked it much as she asked for the recipe and frequently served it at her palace parties. Pianist Jan Smeterlin while on a concert tour in Austria picked up the recipe. Smeterlin, who loves to cook, prepared it for the Queen Mother and the rest, as they say, is history. Thanks to Maida Hatter, who shared the recipe in her Book of Great Desserts.

If I were Madonna or prima ballerina I could wish for no better honor than to have a culinary creation named after me.

End of the article, which was published on August 2000 at Manila, Philippines.

When I read this article, I was amazed on how people could be so creative in naming their creations not to mention on how they were able to come up with their masterpieces.