Yes, a man named Harry Baker did create a chiffon cake that he sold to places like the Brown Derby which had a simple menu in its earliest years. At this point the name was changed to “chiffon cake” and was released with a set of 14 recipes and variations in a Betty Crocker pamphlet published in 1948. Baker kept the recipe a secret for 20 years, until he sold it to General Mills for an undisclosed amount of money. According to the legend, the chiffon cake was invented in 1927 by Harry Baker, a California insurance salesman turned caterer. The story about Harry Baker and his famous chiffon cake is the kind of stuff on which legends are built and numerous references can be found in food reference books.
