Eton mess as more traditional. A similar dessert is Lancing mess (which uses bananas), served throughout the year at Lancing College in West Sussex, England. The word "mess" may refer to the appearance of the dish, or may be used in the sense of "a quantity of food", particularly "a prepared dish of soft food" or "a mixture of ingredients cooked or eaten together". Eton mess Eton mess is a traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, broken meringue, and whipped double cream. First mentioned in print in 1893, it is commonly believed to originate from Eton College and is
Whipped cream cream not. However, most authors treat the two as synonyms, with both being sweetened, neither being sweetened, or treating sweetening as optional. Many authors use only one of the two names (for the sweetened or unsweetened version), so it is not clear if they distinguish the two. The invention of crème Chantilly is often credited incorrectly, and without evidence, to François Vatel, "maître d'hôtel" at the Château de Chantilly in the mid-17th century. But the name Chantilly is first connected with whipped cream in the mid-18th century, around the time that the Baronne d'Oberkirch praised the "cream" served at a