Tarte Tatin is named for sisters with what surname?

Tarte Tatin is named for the sisters with the surname Tatin.

Stéphanie Tatin and Caroline Tatin operated the Hôtel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, a town in France’s Sologne region. The dessert associated with their hotel eventually became known as tarte Tatin, although the sisters themselves apparently did not publish a cookbook or formally name the dish that way.

The tart’s fame grew through culinary writers and Parisian restaurant culture after the sisters’ era. Food writer and epicure Curnonsky helped promote the association, while the restaurant Maxim’s later helped spread the dessert’s reputation. The name therefore refers to the women who served and popularized the tart, not to a pastry technique or an ingredient.

A common mix-up is assuming the tart was definitively invented by one sister in a single documented accident. The famous story credits Stéphanie, but historical accounts differ, and earlier French upside-down fruit preparations existed. The surname answer remains straightforward even though the invention story is less certain.