Buttery, with a crumbly crust and a soft, airy interior. It's impossible to resist a croissant. When you think of this delicacy, as simple in ingredients as it is complex in preparation, it's almost automatic to associate it with France, home of refined pastries and timeless cafés. However, this emblem of French breakfast doesn't have strictly French origins. Its past, in fact, is tied to historical events that led it to "travel" around Europe, where there is no shortage of legends that have become part of popular culture. Let's discover this gastronomic icon, in a mix of myth and reality that intertwines Vienna and Paris, Austrians and Turks, heroic bakers, nostalgic queens and savvy entrepreneurs.
Legends: The Ottoman Siege and Marie Antoniette
The best-known legend about the origin of the croissant dates back to the 17th century, during the siege of Vienna in 1683 by the Ottomans of Sultan Mehmet IV, and concerns what is unanimously recognized as its predecessor, the kipferl, the traditional Austrian and Hungarian brioche. It is said that Viennese bakers, waking up at dawn to knead their baked goods, heard the noise of enemies digging underground tunnels to surprise the city. Having alerted the authorities, the Viennese army managed to thwart the attack, saving the capital of the Holy Roman Empire from invasion. A food that would celebrate victory was needed: the idea that went down in history, according to popular belief, came from a certain Vendler, a baker who combined flour, butter, sugar, and eggs (to make the surface shiny) to create a crescent-shaped cake, inspired by the effigy of the Turkish flag. By eating it, one would forever remember the great feat.
A little over a century later, Marie Antoinette is said to have uttered (untrue) the famous phrase: "If they have no bread, let them eat brioche," referring to the starving French people. What could she have been referring to? The kipferl, of all places: the sovereign was born in Austria (so much so that she was derogatorily called l'Autrichienne) and it was she who brought the delicious sweets to court because she missed them (it is well known that the queen was very homesick). The pastry chefs of Versailles are said to have interpreted the original in a more elaborate version, making it more sophisticated and light, just like the croissant, thanks to their art of working the pastry and the use of the highest quality butter.
The Real History: The Kipferl and The Entrepreneur Zang
Despite the allure of legends, the time has come for facts to speak for themselves. And this is where Paris comes into play, where in 1839 the entrepreneur and former Austrian soldier August Zang opened the famous Boulangerie Viennoise at 92 Rue Richelieu. He studied hard, equipped himself with a steam oven, a mechanical mixer, and brewer's yeast (which replaced sourdough starter) and began producing the first Viennese bread (pain viennois), which resembles a baguette, but is much softer. Furthermore, from Vienna, his hometown (he was born in 1807 and died in 1888), he also brought the recipe for the kipferl, which he perfected, creating the croissant we all know, with the classic pâte levée feuilletée dough of French tradition filled with butter, rolled out and folded over itself several times in a series of sheets, which we see as the basis of other famous viennoiseries, such as the pain au chocolat, a puff pastry filled with chocolate that is hard to say no to.
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