Franz Sacher

Franz Sacher (16 December 1816 – 11 March 1907) was an Austrian[1] confectioner, best known as the inventor of the Sachertorte.

According to Sacher's son Eduard, 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!

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 story was probably invented by Eduard many years later, to appeal to "Viennese nostalgic for their imperial past".