Hot, cold, sweet, salty, boozy, spiced: Bananas Foster has everything

I’m a sucker for a challenge. I absolutely cannot resist a little competition. Throw down a gauntlet, and I am compelled to pick it up.

That’s probably one of the reasons that I love bananas Foster so much: it owes its existence to a challenge. In the 1950s, New Orleans was a major port of entry for bananas shipped from Latin America. Owen Brennan, owner of the eponymous French-Creole restaurant Brennan’s, was no fool: his brother Joe’s produce firm, Brennan’s Processed Potato Company, was running a large surplus of bananas and he wanted to make the most of these readily available fruit.

He challenged one of his chefs to come up with a banana dish that could be served at his restaurant. So the chef Paul Blangé (working with Owen’s sister Ella, who later took over the restaurant, and was largely responsible for its subsequent success) set about recreating a dish that the Brennans’ mother used to make in the family home.

Bananas Foster – named after Owen’s friend Richard Foster – was born, and it became the restaurant’s signature pudding for their celebrated ‘Brennan’s breakfast’ (you have to admire any breakfast that not only serves pudding, but has a signature one), to follow their turtle soup and eggs Hussarde. Brennan’s is still there today in New Orleans, still serving bananas Foster. And it’s as popular as ever – 15,800kg of bananas are used by the restaurant in the dish each year.

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Melanie McDonagh

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But of course, an origin story only takes you so far. Luckily, bananas Foster has more going for it. It’s a great dish: bananas sautéed until they are caramelised and golden, but still holding their shape, bathing in a rum-cinnamon butterscotch (and plenty of it), and topped with a generous boule of vanilla ice cream.