Dialogue: Pavlovian response to Anna

Anna Pavlova, the ballerina after whom our dessert was named, will be remembered long after Anna Kournikova, says PAUL TITCHENER*.

As the glamorous Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova wows the crowd at the ASB Bank Classic women's tennis tournament at the Parnell Tennis Centre, it is interesting that 76 years ago, in 1926, another alluring Russian woman also called Anna was captivating New Zealanders throughout the country, not on a tennis court, but on the stages of our most prestigious theatres.

She was the 20th century's most celebrated ballerina, Anna Pavlova, who visited our shores only once, but whose name is part of our language - the meringue dessert created in her honour being part of our culture, the origin of which, all these years later, is still a matter of emotive dispute between New Zealand and Australia.

Anna Pavlova, born in 1882, the daughter of a prosperous St Petersburg businessman, showed an aptitude for ballet at an early age and was enrolled at the prestigious St Petersburg Markinsky Ballet Academy.

She graduated from there at the age of 17 to become a principal dancer in the famous Russian corps de ballet. Here she captivated her audiences with her poetic grace and fluid style, inspiring the renowned choreographer Mikhail Fokine to create her famous signature solo piece, The Swan.

Leaving Russia after the First World War, Anna Pavlova settled with her husband, Victor Dandre, in London and from there she toured the world, not only Europe and the United States, but such places as Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and on to Australia and New Zealand.

Rapturous crowds welcomed Anna Pavlova wherever she went in New Zealand, her beauty and charm captivating an adoring public the way sports stars do today.

It was at a ballet recital in Wellington that a head chef of a notable local hotel, who was in the audience, was inspired to create the dessert that to this day carries the ballerina's name.

In one dance Anna Pavlova wore a tutu made from green silk draped in cabbage roses, with a white net.

The chef used a meringue base in the shape of the tutu and whipped cream as the froth of the net, the green silk and cabbage roses emulated by slices of chinese gooseberries (today's kiwifruit).

To give flavour the whipped cream was blended with passionfruit and the whole dish simulated Anna Pavlova's personality and on-stage beauty. The Wellington chef proudly called his culinary creation "Pavlova", and history was made.

The dessert was an immediate success and all over New Zealand professional chefs and housewives began producing pavlovas.

Late in 1926, a recipe book entitled Home Cookery for New Zealand, written by Elaine Futter, was published, which gave the recipe for a dessert very similar to the Wellington chef's Pavlova but which was not named as such.

But it was not long before Australia was claiming that the pavlova was created by a Perth chef, Herbert Sachse, at the Esplanade Hotel.

But Sachse's creation used golden queen peaches instead of kiwifruit, and the Australian pavlova did not appear until 1935, 10 years after the Russian ballerina toured Australia.

Even an American chef at a hotel on Long Island, New York, claimed to have created the pavlova using strawberries instead of kiwifruit.

There seems little doubt, however, that the pavlova is genuine New Zealand creation, honouring the famous Russian ballerina to this day and no doubt for many years to come. The delicious meringue dessert is definitely part of our heritage.

Anna Pavlova died a sad death in 1931, at the age of 50, in The Hague in Holland, from pneumonia after catching a chill while travelling on a winter journey in an unheated train.

Her ashes are kept at the Golders Green Crematorium in London, with those of her husband, who died in 1944. Over the years it has been suggested that they should be returned to the city of her birth, St Petersburg.

The two Russian Annas, Pavlova and Kournikova, have certainly created interest in New Zealand, one on the ballet stage and in the kitchen where her name is immortalised, the other on the tennis court.

But one feels that the ballerina will be remembered long after the tennis player has served her last ball.

* Paul Titchener, of Bayswater, is a former mayor of North Shore City.