...AND OTHER ACCIDENTAL KITCHEN ALCHEMY

Champagne

THE Benedictine monks might have done all the growing, picking, pressing and bottling. But some say it was us Brits who invented bubbly — by accidentally leaving red and white wine shipped from Champagne on a freezing London dock. It fermented again, making fizz.

Chicken Tikka Masala

IT’s our national dish. Yet some say, it only came about when ali ahmed aslam — then owner of Glasgow’s shish Mahal restaurant — knocked up a sauce of spices and a tin of condensed tomato soup when a customer complained his chicken was too dry.

Crisps

CREaTED in 1853 when, after complaints about his thick, soggy potatoes, George Crum — chef of

New York’s Moon’s Lake House restaurant — sliced his spuds impossibly thinly — hoping his annoying customers wouldn’t be able to eat them with a fork. To his surprise, they adored them, and the crisp was born.

Sandwich

INVENTED, it is rumoured, in 1762 when John Montagu, 4th Earl of sandwich and an inveterate gambler, refused to stop playing cards for lunch. He told his valet to bring him his meat between two slices of bread. Fellow gamblers followed suit, asked for ‘the same as sandwich’, and that was that.

Ice lollies

ONE night in 1905, Frank w. Epperson accidentally left outside a stirrer in a cup containing soda water powder mixed with water. Next day, it was frozen solid. Frank, just 11 at the time, went on to patent his finding as ‘a handled, frozen confection or ice lollipop’.

Bakewell pudding

IT aLL started in 1820, when a visiting nobleman supposedly ordered a jam tart in a Bakewell inn. The cook make a complete hash of it by layering the almond mixture on top of the jam rather than mixing it into the pastry. It set on top like an egg custard. The nobleman loved it and ordered another one.