Classic Banana Split

The banana split was born in 1904 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, invented by a twenty-three-year-old apprentice pharmacist named David Strickler who was looking for a way to draw customers to his drugstore soda fountain. What he created was nothing less than the American sundae perfected, a dessert so comprehensive that it became the standard against which all others are measured.

There is theater in a banana split. The long boat of a dish. The split banana creating its own architecture. Three scoops of ice cream in ascending domes. The cascade of sauces, each a different color, pooling and mingling in the valleys. The clouds of whipped cream. The cheerful red cherries standing at attention. This is not a dessert you eat alone in the kitchen over the sink. This is a celebration.

I've watched countless home cooks convince themselves that banana splits are too fussy, too complicated, reserved for ice cream parlors and birthday parties. Nonsense. The sauces can be made days ahead. The whipped cream takes two minutes. The assembly is pure joy, especially when you recruit children to help place the cherries. What seems elaborate is actually a simple act of layering, performed with cold hands and a warm heart.