Pavlova, a delicious fruit and meringue dessert, has a disputed origin dating back to the early twentieth century. Various eateries in Australia and New Zealand claim to have invented it. The first mention of the name in the Oxford English Dictionary dates back to a recipe for “strawberries pavlova” published in the New Zealand Herald in 1911. Interestingly, while the dessert was named after Anna Pavlova, a famous ballerina at the time, it seems that the person who named it may not be the same as the one who actually created it. There are records of the same dish being referred to as a “cream cake”. The name likely stems from Anna Pavlova’s billowy tutu or the lightness of the dessert itself. The name “Pavel” is a variant of the Latin word “paulus,” meaning “small,” which is also the root of the name “Paul.”
