Eggs Benedict: Who is the Benedict behind the dish?

More popular among Western folk, eggs Benedict is an egg recipe that originated in New York, USA. Although egg dishes like boiled egg, scrambled egg, omelette, and egg bhurji are popular among Indians, many cafes, delis, and restaurants offer eggs Benedict as a part of their menu. It may not be as prevalent in India as it is in European countries and America, but those who know a thing or two about eggs know just how delicious the dish is .

One of the most mouthwatering egg recipes, eggs Benedict is made of a poached egg, and bacon, ham, or any other meat like salmon or steak served atop two halves of an English muffin. Dressed with Hollandaise sauce, the result is a dish that tastes as good as it looks. While it originated in New York, there is a lot of dispute as to the details behind the origin of the recipe and the name. Let us examine the possible points of origin.

Some food experts believe that eggs Benedict was being made as early as the period of Renaissance, where Benedictine monks ate poached egg on top of pureed salt cod. This dish evolved into what we know today as eggs Benedict. This theory lacks any kind of evidence, therefore it has been debunked by many food historians.

Lemuel Benedict was a Wall Street broker who stumbled upon a hotel called Waldorf in a state of hangover. He ordered buttered toast, crisp bacon, two poached eggs, and a pitcher of Hollandaise sauce. The hotel’s chef was so impressed by this choice of foods that he included the recipe in his breakfast and lunch menus, replacing bacon with ham and buttered toast with English muffin. This story gained credibility since it was published in The New Yorker in 1942, 48 years after the incident.

In 1978, an article published in Bon Appetit magazine credited a couple as the founders of the dish. Legrand Benedict, a Wall Street financier, and his wife had gone out for lunch at a famous restaurant called Delmonico’s. Mrs. Benedict wasn’t happy with the menu, and after having a word with the chef Charles Ranhofer, she ended up concocting what we know today as eggs benedict. Ranhofer, in his 1894 cookbook called The Epicurean, referred to the dish as Eggs a la Benedick.

In 1967, Craig Clairborne, a food critic working for The New York Times was contacted by an American named Edward P. Montgomery. Montgomery was living in Paris, France at the time, and he complained that Americans were making eggs Benedict incorrectly, using an over poached egg, a few shards of ham, a soggy half of an English muffin, and tasteless sauce. He claimed that the dish was invented by Commodore E.C. Benedict, a banker and yachtsman, and that he received the correct recipe from Benedict’s mother.