In an interview in the The New Yorker magazine in 1942 , Lemuel Benedict , a retired Wall Street stock broker , said that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 and , hoping to find a cure for his morning hangover , ordered `` buttered toast , poached eggs , crisp bacon and a hooker of hollandaise . '' In an interview recorded in the `` Talk of the Town '' column of The New Yorker in 1942 , the year before his death , Lemuel Benedict , a retired Wall Street stock broker , claimed that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 and , hoping to find a cure for his morning hangover , ordered `` buttered toast , poached eggs , crisp bacon and a hooker of hollandaise . ''