It's Not Bacon

The French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier invented Melba toast. It's not what you would call a popular food, at least not these days, but I do like Melba toast and was surprised to hear that someone actually "invented" it. It's a hard piece of dry toast; I would have guessed it just happened when someone dropped a piece of already toasted bread back into their campfire. I also had never heard of the chef until about ten minutes ago when I saw an ad online about becoming an escoffier, and not knowing the word I looked it up and of course am now an expert on the subject. (God bless Wikipedia.)

I haven't eaten Melba toast in at least 20 years. It was a staple of my teenage diet years, along with half a cantaloupe filled with a scoop of cottage cheese. I only really started to like it because my mother's middle name was Melba and so she stocked it, keeping it in the cupboard alongside the Mallomars she craved constantly. She was skinny, so the Mallomars were fine for her, but I stuck to that dry Melba toast. My first mother-in-law, who was a great cook deserving of her very own Wikipedia page, often made it from scratch, starting with a loaf of Pepperidge Farm white bread. She served it with tuna salad she made by first grilling a tuna steak. She was something.

Melba toast is still sold in stores, but I can't remember the last time I saw anyone eating it. As my husband says, "It's hard, it's bland--what's to like?" It's sad, really. Imagine it sitting on the shelf in the market watching everyone pass by with their carts full of all the other, more interesting crackers: Ritz! Triscuits! Wheat Thins! Saltines! I may have to buy a box today.