The long, fabled, and controversial history of the Sachertorte begins, as do all good sagas, with an origin tale that sounds too good to be true. The year is 1832 and Klemens von Metternich -- probably the most powerful chancellor in the history of the Habsburg Empire -- was throwing an event of some kind and tasked his court with concocting a new dessert to impress his guests. His lead chef having fallen ill, in stepped an apprentice of but 16 years-of-age by the name of Franz Sacher. "I hope you won’t disgrace me tonight," von Metternich was said to have warned the young Sacher, who under immense pressure conceived of a chocolate cake finished with apricot jam and a chocolate glaze. His creation, suffice it to say, was well-received and went on to build up a cult following among the Viennese upper class in the mid-nineteenth century. And thus a legend was born.
In 1876, his son, Eduard, established an eponymous hotel in the shadow of the State Opera House, out of which the Sachers served their Sachertorte and became purveyors to the royal family. Eduard's wife, Anna, became its managing director. In 1934, amid economic and political crisis, the hotel went bankrupt, its ownership changed hands, and Eduard's son (who, confusingly, is also named Eduard) found employ in the kitchens of a rival business: the confectioners Demel. By 1938, the Hotel Sacher had begun selling what it called the "Original Sacher-Torte," whose recipe (or approximations thereof) is now the model for Sachertorten sold up and down the land. Its most important and most-recognisable feature, save the Sacher Torte stamp atop each slice, is the filling. In its assembly, the Original Sacher-Torte is cut in half horizontally and sandwiched with apricot marmalade, before being brushed all over with more jam and lacquered with chocolate glaze. Why this matters is for the next part of the Sachertorte saga...
