The name given to various dishes dedicated to Dame Nellie Melba, the famous 19th-century Australian opera singer. The best known is peach Melba, created by Escoffier when he was chef at the Savoy in London. The original was an elaborate dish of a swan of ice with peaches on top on a bed of ice-cream and topped with spun sugar. Today, the dessert consists of peach halves on a bed of vanilla ice-cream and coated with raspberry puree.