Dame Blanche

Dame blanche is scoops of vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and drenched in hot melted dark chocolate poured over at the table. It's a Belgian invention, built in a country famous for its chocolate specifically to give that chocolate the starring role in a dessert of its own rather than playing a supporting part.

What it really is

Scoops of plain vanilla ice cream sit in a glass or bowl, topped with a swirl of freshly whipped cream, and arrive at the table with the ice cream and cream still cold and the chocolate sauce served separately, hot, in a small jug or pot. The chocolate — a genuinely rich, dark melted sauce rather than a thin syrup — pours over the ice cream right in front of the guest, so the contrast between the hot sauce and the cold ice cream is still at its sharpest the moment it's eaten.

The chocolate has to arrive hot and be poured tableside, not pre-poured in the kitchen. A dame blanche assembled ahead of time, sauce already cooling over softening ice cream, loses the exact contrast the dessert is built around — the temperature difference is the point, not a serving flourish.

How it's served

• Ice cream and cream in a glass, hot chocolate sauce poured over at the table.
• Sometimes with a few wafer biscuits alongside.
• As a dessert, rarely modified beyond the classic combination.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the dairy in the ice cream and cream, and the egg if the ice cream base uses it.
• Say that the chocolate sauce is poured hot at the table, since that's a genuine part of the presentation guests expect.
• It's naturally vegetarian as standard.