List of Foods Named After People - B

B

• Baco Noir – a hybrid grape, named after its breeder, Maurice Baco.
• Baldwin apple – Colonel Loammi Baldwin (1745–1807), a commander of militia at the Battle of Lexington, found this apple between 1784 and 1793 while working as a surveyor and engineer on the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts.
• Chicken Cardinal la Balue – Cardinal Jean la Balue (1421–1491), a somewhat notorious minister to Louis XI, is remembered in this dish of chicken, crayfish, and mashed potatoes.
• Bartlett pear – The English Williams pear variety was inadvertently renamed by Massachusetts nurseryman Enoch Bartlett, early 19th century. Williams was a 17th-century English horticulturist.
• Battenberg cake – probably named after one of the late-19th-century princely Battenberg family living in England, who gave up their German titles during World War I and changed their name to Mountbatten.
• Béarnaise sauce – although often thought to indicate the region of Béarn, the sauce name may well originate in the nickname of French king Henry IV (1553–1610), "le Grand Béarnais."
• Béchamel sauce – named to flatter the maître d'Hotel to Louis XIV, Louis de Béchamel, Marquis de Nointel (1630–1703), also a financier and ambassador.
• Bellini (cocktail) – Giovanni Bellini
• Ham mousseline à la Belmont – August Belmont (1816–1890) was born in Prussia and emigrated to the U.S. to work for the New York branch of Rothschild's. He became an extremely wealthy banker, married the daughter of Commodore Matthew Perry, and was a leading figure in New York society and American horse racing. This dish was created at Delmonico's by Charles Ranhofer, probably for a dinner given there in Belmont's honor.
• Eggs Benedict – at least two main accounts. Lemuel Benedict, a New York stockbroker, claimed to have gone to the Waldorf Hotel for breakfast one day in 1894 while suffering a hangover. He asked for a restorative in the form of toast, bacon, poached eggs, and Hollandaise sauce on the side. The maître d' (Oscar of the Waldorf) took an interest in Benedict's order, and adapted it for the Waldorf menu, substituting English muffins and ham, adding truffles, and naming it after Benedict. The other version: in 1893, Charles Ranhofer, head chef of Delmonico's, created the dish for Mr. and/or Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, New York stockbroker and socialite.
• Eggs Benedict XVI – Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Alois Ratzinger (1927) now has a Germanic version of the original Eggs Benedict named after him. Rye bread and sausage or sauerbraten replace the English muffins and Canadian bacon. Eggs Benedict XVI
• Eggs Berlioz – Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), the notable French composer, has his name on a dish of soft-boiled eggs, elevated by the addition of croustades, duchesse potatoes, and truffles and mushrooms in a Madeira sauce.
• Beyti kebab – Beyti Güler, Turkish restaurateur.
• Bibb lettuce – John B. Bibb, mid-19th-century amateur horticulturist of Frankfort, Kentucky.
• Oysters Bienville – this New Orleans dish of baked oysters in a shrimp sauce was named for Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville (1680–1767), French governor of Louisiana and founder of New Orleans (1718).
• Bing cherry – Oregon horticulturist Seth Luelling (or Lewelling) developed the cherry around 1875, with the help of his Manchurian foreman Bing, after whom he named it.
• Bismarck herring, Bismarcks, Schlosskäse Bismarck – Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), chief figure in the unification of Germany in 1870 and first Chancellor of the German Empire, has many foods named after him, including pickled herring, pastry, and cheese.
• Eggs in a Mold Bizet – Georges Bizet (1838–1875), the French composer of Carmen and other operas, has a consommé named for him as well as these eggs cooked in molds lined with minced pickled tongue, served on artichoke hearts.
• Sole Bolivar – South American revolutionary Simón Bolívar (1783–1830).
• Bonaparte's Ribs – an early-19th-century English sweet named after Napoleon Bonaparte
• Boysenberry – Rudolf Boysen, botanist and Anaheim park superintendent, developed the loganberry/raspberry/blackberry cross around the 1920s. The berry was subsequently grown, named and marketed in the 1930s by Walter Knott of Knott's Berry Farm in California.
• Brillat-Savarin cheese – Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826) has many dishes named for him besides this cheese, including partridge, eggs, garnishes, savory pastries, and the Savarin cake. Brillat-Savarin was the influential French author of The Physiology of Taste, in which he advocated viewing cuisine as a science.
• Hot Brown – J. Graham Brown, owner of the Brown Hotel, which first served the hot sandwich.
• Parson Brown orange – Rev. Nathan L. Brown, 19th-century Florida minister and orange grower, developed what was to become the leading commercial orange of the time in the U.S.
• Burbank plum – Luther Burbank (1849–1926), renowned American horticulturist, bred many new varieties of plants, including this and the Russet Burbank potato.