Franz Sacher - Biography

Franz Sacher (1816–1907) was an Austrian-Jewish confectioner, best known as the inventor of the world-famous chocolate cake, the Sachertorte.

In 1832 Austria's minister of foreign affairs, Prince Metternich, ordered his court's kitchen to create a special dessert for a dinner to be attended by high-ranking guests. Dass er mir aber keine Schand' macht, heut' Abend! ("Let there be no shame on me tonight!"), he is reported to have declared. Unfortunately, on the day of the dinner the chief cook of Metternich's household was taken ill, and the task of preparing the dessert had to be passed to Franz Sacher, then in his second year of apprenticeship at the palace. The result was the magnificent chocolate cake devised on the spot by the 16-year-old trainee.

Franz Sacher was born in Vienna and died in Baden bei Wien. In 1876 his son, Eduard, opened the Hotel Sacher, near the State Opera House in Vienna, and the Sachertorte, the (still secret) recipe of which he had inherited, played no small part in spreading the fame of the hotel.