Baked Alaska Florida" in 1894, apparently referring to the contrast between its cold and hot elements. The dish is also known as an "omelette à la norvégienne" or "Norwegian omelette", which similarly refers to the cold climate of Norway. The dish is made of ice cream placed in a pie dish lined with slices of sponge cake or Christmas pudding, and topped with meringue. The entire dessert is then placed in an extremely hot oven for a brief time, long enough to firm and caramelize the meringue. In 1969, the recently invented microwave oven enabled Hungarian gastrophysicist Nicholas Kurti to produce a
Omelette during the mid-16th century, but the versions "alumelle" and "alumete" are employed by the Ménagier de Paris (II, 5) in 1393. Rabelais ("Pantagruel", IV, 9) mentions an "homelaicte d'oeufs", Olivier de Serres an "amelette", François Pierre La Varenne's "Le cuisinier françois" (1651) has "aumelette", and the modern "omelette" appears in "Cuisine bourgoise" (1784). According to the founding legend of the annual giant Easter omelette of Bessières, Haute-Garonne, when Napoleon Bonaparte and his army were traveling through southern France, they decided to rest for the night near the town of Bessières. Napoleon feasted on an omelette prepared by a local innkeeper,