Yet another Aussie/Kiwi dispute on the Great Russian ballet legend Anna Pavlova, and her antipodean legacy (sigh, eye roll and exhale)...it seems that this time, we really can claim the coveted Pavlova tiara...According to Professor Helen Leach, culinary anthropologist at the University of Otago, New Zealand, gives 1935 for the first Australian pavlova recipe, and 1929 for the recipe in the rural magazine NZ Dairy Exporter Annual. She has compiled a collection of cook books and recipes of 667 different pavlova recipes.
A claim was made that Bert Sachse originally created the desert at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth, Australia in 1934, but according to Leach there have been no known publications in any cookbooks in Australia until the 1940s.
