Melba toast "Eighteen Day Reducing Diet" to Ethel Barrymore. It included Melba toast, which made the toast very popular at the time. Melba toast Melba toast is a dry, crisp and thinly sliced toast, often served with soup and salad or topped with either melted cheese or pâté. It is named after Dame Nellie Melba, the stage name of Australian opera singer Helen Porter Mitchell. Its name is thought to date from 1897, when the singer was very ill and it became a staple of her diet. The toast was created for her by chef and fan Auguste Escoffier, who also created
Welsh cuisine such as cawl, and traditions grew around their use. One tradition, which was still in place at the start of World War II, was that villagers could plant an row of potatoes in a neighbouring farmer's field for each labourer the household could provide at the time of harvest. Whilst there are a large number of dishes that can be considered Welsh due to their ingredients, there are some which are quintessentially Welsh. Dishes such as cawl, Welsh rarebit, laverbread, Welsh cakes, bara brith (literally "speckled bread") or the Glamorgan sausage have all been regarded as symbols of Welsh food.