Eggs Benedict is one of the most popular breakfast meals ordered in restaurants today. Though many people enjoy the egg-focused meal, few know where the recipe came from or how its popularity skyrocketed. Below are some details about the fascinating origin story of Eggs Benedict.

Delmonico’s Restaurant

Contrary to popular belief, Eggs Benedict was not named after American military officer Benedict Arnold or Pope Benedict XIII. Two New York City restaurants lay claim to the creation of this egg dish. The first is Delmonico’s.

Based on this fine dining establishment, Eggs Benedict was named after Mr. and Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, a couple who regularly frequented the restaurant in 1860. According to the restaurant’s legend, the two had visited so often, they had tried everything on the menu and demanded the cooks make something new for them.

To meet their request, the Delmonico brothers and their chef, Charles Ranhofer, created what is known today as Eggs Benedict. The dish consisted of a split English muffin, bacon, poached eggs, and Hollandaise sauce.

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

The other establishment that claims to have created this widely famous breakfast dish is the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Based on this premier NYC hotel’s history, the meal was named after a young man named Lemuel Benedict around 1894.

According to their legend, the patron was hungover and placed an order for buttered toast, bacon, and poached eggs topped with Hollandaise sauce. Once Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf-Astoria’s maître d' heard about the order, he added it to their breakfast and lunch menu, but with ham instead of bacon and an English muffin in place of toast.

Out of the two origin stories, the Waldorf’s version is more well-known, thanks to a 1942 article in the New Yorker about the dish. The creation for Eggs Benedict was given to Tschirky; however, the hotel’s famous maître d' also worked at Delmonico’s as a waiter around the time Ranhofer claimed to have created the now-famous meal.

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