Gasparini, a Swiss pastry cook from the town of Meiringen in Switzerland, was expecting a visit from Napoleon when he created a confection using nuts, sugar and egg yolks. Not wanting to waste the egg whites, he whipped them together with sugar and shaped them into mounds, which he baked until crisp and dry and served in saucers brimming with cream. It is said Napoleon preferred the second creation and named them after the town.
When Suzanne was the pastry chef at the Cordon Bleu Restaurant in London’s Marylebone Lane, she kept tins of meringues in different shapes ready to make desserts, little cakes and petits fours at the drop of a hat. Her customers would queue down the street for them. Meringues are one of the most versatile offerings of the kitchen.