The origins of the pavlova are a subject of a long-standing dispute between
Australia and
New Zealand. Both nations claim the dish as a national symbol. A recipe for "Strawberries Pavlova" appeared in the
New Zealand Herald on 11 November 1911, but this was a kind of
ice block or
sorbet. Annabelle Utrecht, who wrote a book about the possible origins of pavlova, believes that this is a reprint from England. David Burton regards this as the first known recipe for a food resembling the modern pavlova; Australian food writer Michael Symons, however, does not recognise it as such, pointing to its lack of vinegar or cornflour, to the absence of the pavlova name, and to its description as a meringue cake cut in half and filled. However, this was a multi-layered jelly, not the meringue, cream and fruit dessert known today. A recipe for pavlova cake was published in
The Evening Star on 10 November 1934. It has also been claimed that Bert Sachse created the dish at the
Esplanade Hotel in
Perth, Western Australia, in 1935. In defence of his claim as inventor of the dish, a relative of Sachse's wrote to Leach suggesting that Sachse may have accidentally dated the recipe incorrectly. Leach replied they would not find evidence for that "because it's just not showing up in the cookbooks until really the 1940s in Australia." However, a recipe for "pavlova cake" was published in
The Advocate in 1935, and a 1937 issue of ''
The Australian Women's Weekly'' contains a "pavlova sweet cake" recipe. A 1935 advertisement for a chromium ring used to prevent the dessert collapsing also indicates that the term "pavlova cake" had some currency in Auckland at that time. Other researchers have said that the origins of pavlova lie outside both Australia and New Zealand. Research conducted by New Zealander Andrew Paul Wood and Australian Annabelle Utrecht found that the origins of the modern pavlova can be traced back to the Austro-Hungarian
Spanische Windtorte. It was later brought to the United States where German-speaking immigrants introduced meringue, whipped cream, and fruit desserts called
Schaumtorte ("foam cake") and
Baisertorte. American corn starch packages which included recipes for meringue were exported to New Zealand in the 1890s. One year later a recipe was published in the ''New Zealand Women's Weekly'', which contained four egg whites, a breakfast cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vinegar, to be cooked in a cake tin. An article in Melbourne's
The Argus from 17 November 1928 claims an "American ice-cream" was named after Anna Pavlova: "Dame
Nellie Melba, of course, has found fame apart from her art in the famous
sweet composed of peaches and cream, while Mme. Anna Pavlova lends her name to a popular variety of American ice-cream." This article may suggest that pavlova has American origins. However, it's unclear how these words should be interpreted and whether that article is relevant. Firstly, the authors of that article offer no evidence for their claims or any depth of discussion of their claims. Secondly, given that pavlova is not an ice-cream, it is highly unclear as to whether the words "American ice-cream" is referring to the modern pavlova dessert or something else entirely. Matthew Evans, a restaurant critic for
The Sydney Morning Herald, said that it was unlikely that a definitive answer about the dessert's origins would ever be found. "People have been doing meringue with cream for a long time, I don't think Australia or New Zealand were the first to think of doing that." In 2010 the
Oxford English Dictionary noted that the first recorded recipe of pavlova was from 1927 in
Davis Dainty Dishes, published by the Davis Gelatine Company in New Zealand. This was a multi-coloured jelly dish. Confusingly, the dictionary ambiguously listed the origin as "Austral. and N.Z". ==Preparation and consumption==