Unfortunately, We'll Probably Never Know The True Origins Of Eggs Benedict
Step into any restaurant serving Sunday Brunch and you are likely to come across at least one variation of Eggs Benedict on the menu. This rich and oh-so-satisfying dish is a favorite among weekend brunchers, in part because it's not the simplest dish to recreate at home. The main components of a classic Eggs Benedict include poached eggs over Canadian bacon and an English muffin, all of which comes covered in a generous drizzle of hollandaise sauce. It's a savory and filling meal that customers cannot seem to get enough of — but where did Eggs Benedict come from, exactly?
As it turns out, the history of Eggs Benedict is rather complicated, with no agreed-upon origin story. It's actually a tale filled with drama thanks to some disputed claims about the first person to ask for this dish. Who even comes up with hollandaise sauce over poached eggs anyway? The answer is far more complicated than you might think, so get ready to go on a twisting story that spans over one hundred years.
When did Hollandaise sauce first appear?
Before the Eggs Benedict as the world knows it today can be invented, first, there needs to be the development of one of its essential ingredients: hollandaise sauce. It's what gives the dish its rich and savory flavor, and it also adds a nice pop of color. Frankly, if your Eggs Benedict comes served without the sauce, you may have ordered an imposter dish. It's a multi-step process to make your own hollandaise at home, which is why many will leave it to the experts and keep Eggs Benedict as a strictly occasional treat at restaurants.
Despite the fact that its name means "Holland-style," hollandaise sauce has close ties to not only the Netherlands but to neighboring France as well. If you want to go way back, it is believed that the earliest forms of this custardy sauce using eggs and butter were developed by the Huguenots, a name given to the French protestants who fled persecution and settled in Holland during the 16th century.
Over time, the sauce became a more common component of many dishes, though the hollandaise moniker was not adopted until World War I. During that time, France needed to begin importing its butter from Holland, hence the name hollandaise sauce — this way, everyone would know where the butter came from. The name has remained to this day, despite the ingredients for the sauce now coming from anywhere and everywhere.
Some have given credit to Pope Benedict XIII
Some foods and dishes that people enjoy to this day have truly ancient origins, dating back hundreds of years. While the exact origins of Eggs Benedict are to be debated, most will agree that it was invented much more recently. However, some will say that at least some credit must be given to Pope Benedict XIII. His reign lasted from 1724 until his death in 1730, and it turns out he had a certain affinity for a specific egg dish that he would request to be served many times. Eventually, as the story goes, the egg dish would be named after him: Eggs Benedict.
Of course, most culinary historians would likely not go as far back as the 18th century to credit a former Pope with developing Eggs Benedict. A Pope named Benedict who really liked eggs for breakfast is likely a coincidence more than anything. But this is still a fun bit of food trivia to whip out when you and your friends are ordering Eggs Benedict for Sunday Brunch.
The Eggs Benedict we know today was probably invented during the Gilded Age
The most likely origins of Eggs Benedict take the story back to the Gilded Age, a period in American history around the late 1800s. It was a time when railroads were expanding from coast to coast, and families like the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers were earning their riches. At the same time, the Gilded Age was a period of immigration, with millions arriving in America looking for work and a new life. With so much change happening around the country, it's no wonder that the Gilded Age saw the birth of various dishes and meals people still enjoy to this day.
However, while Eggs Benedict is believed to have emerged from the Gilded Age, there are two competing stories regarding the exact origin of the dish. Both stories involve hungry customers looking for a new way to satiate their hunger and accidentally inventing a dish that would become known the world over in the process. Though both stories will eventually intertwine, the reality of when Eggs Benedict was invented likely comes down to one of these two scenarios.
Possibility number one: Delmonico's
The first likely scenario for how Eggs Benedict came about takes place at a historic steakhouse in New York called Delmonico's. The restaurant first opened its doors in 1837 and is still considered one of the culinary landmarks of New York City. A few decades after the restaurant opened, it was the go-to destination for many of the social elite, especially during the Gilded Age. One of those elite regulars was Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, who visited so frequently that she practically had the entire menu memorized front to back.
Looking for something new to enjoy, Mrs. Benedict apparently requested a specific egg dish that the chef then named after her. If you've ever been to Delmonico's then you may have spotted its unique version of Eggs Benedict on the menu. Since it was first developed with the help of Mrs. Benedict, it's been a popular menu item. But several decades later, a different origin story would take place, one that many consider to be the more likely beginning of Eggs Benedict.
Possibility number two: The Waldorf Hotel
Several blocks north of Delmonico's and several years after Mrs. LeGrand Benedict's apparent inspiration for a new egg dish, a stockbroker named Lemuel Benedict found his way into The Waldorf Hotel in search of a hangover cure. In the mood for something specific, he ordered "two poached eggs, bacon, buttered toast and a pitcher of hollandaise sauce," per The New York Times. That sure sounds a lot like Eggs Benedict, though according to this version of the story, there was no such name at the time.
Lemuel's peculiar order caught the attention of the maître d'hôtel, who put it on the menu after trying it himself. However, instead of toast, the hotel's version came with an English muffin. As the story goes, the dish was named after Lemuel Benedict, though, interestingly, Lemuel did not like the version with English muffins, so if you ever want to enjoy Eggs Benedict as its supposed originator did, be sure to order yours over toast. The origin story of Eggs Benedict remained relatively quiet for 50 years until an article was published in The New Yorker sharing Lemuel's story, which happened to be noticed by a relative.
Lemuel's relative was determined to prove his story
Jack Benedict's discovery of The New Yorker article covering his relative Lemuel's supposed invention of Eggs Benedict fascinated him. In fact, it quickly became something of a mission to make sure everyone knew of his family's ties to the dish. So, you can imagine Jack's ire when, in 1978, an article was published in Bon Appetit magazine that gave the fame and glory of inventing Eggs Benedict to none other than Mrs. LeGrand Benedict. This was all happening as Jack was preparing to open his first restaurant, where he intended on serving Eggs Benedict two ways — the way Lemuel preferred with toast and bacon strips, and the way the hotel preferred with Canadian bacon and an English muffin.
Per The New York Times, Jack's efforts brought him to distant relatives Coleman Benedict and his wife Ethyle, who he managed to enlist in his fight for recognition. He wanted to release an article to counter the Bon Appetit one, though he was eventually forced to admit that the damage was done. "The facts are that people did read Bon Appetit in 1978," he conceded in a letter to his newly-found relative, "and LeGrand is winning, not Lemuel." He even made phone calls to McDonald's to have an Eggs Benedict-inspired item added to the menu, but the fast food chain had already developed the Egg McMuffin by this point.
Jack passed away in 1993 without locking in proper credit to his family for inventing Eggs Benedict. When Coleman Benedict passed away in 2005, his wife Ethyle included a note in his obituary that tied the family back to Lemuel, noted as the creator of Eggs Benedict. However, one thing that goes against this version of events is that Oscar Tschirky (aka Oscar of the Waldorf), the famous maître d'hôtel who supposedly created the new version in Lemuel Benedict's name, never confirmed this.
A similar recipe appears in The Epicurean
While Jack Benedict was working to fulfill what he felt was his life's mission to tie the origins of Eggs Benedict directly to his family, the dish was continuing to grow in popularity. After all, despite Jack's best efforts, many individuals still associated Eggs Benedict with Delmonico's. That is likely because in 1894, the same year that Lemuel Benedict stumbled into The Waldorf Hotel in search of a hangover cure, "The Epicurean" was published.
Written by Delmonico's chef Charles Ranhofer, "The Epicurean" was a detailed cookbook that contained numerous recipes, including one for a near-identical dish called Eggs a la Benedick. This would wind up causing Jack Benedict quite the headache in proving that it was his family, not LeGrand's, that invented the egg dish.
So, what is the ultimate verdict of the true origins of Eggs Benedict? There is likely some truth to both sides of this hollandaise tale, with Delmonico's and The Waldorf developing some version of the dish independently. According to The New York Times, Eggs Benedict is more likely to be one of those dishes that was simply developed over time, with no single precise moment where it was "invented."
Modern takes on Eggs Benedict
The story of Eggs Benedict does not stop with the passing of Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, Lemuel Benedict, or Jack Benedict. As is the case with many traditional dishes, there are lots of different ways to prepare Eggs Benedict these days other than the old-school method of layering an English muffin with Canadian bacon, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Depending on who you ask, anything could qualify as Eggs Benedict so long as it has some sort of carb and protein (though poached eggs and hollandaise sauce are more consistent across every iteration).
Take, for example, celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern. He has a version of Eggs Benedict that ties into his Jewish heritage, swapping the Canadian bacon for pastrami and the English muffin for latkes. Step into any coastal New England restaurant on a Sunday and you will likely find something similar to Lobster Eggs Benedict with huge chunks of lobster meat, or even Crabcake Benedict.
No matter how you prefer your Eggs Benedict to be served, you can tie its origins to somewhere in New York City, and sometime around the turn of the 20th century. It is a distinctly American dish that is still enjoyed to this day, and fans likely have a multitude of Benedicts to thank for that.