While we are all familiar with the croissant as a staple cliché of French cuisine, its actual history is mysterious and the subject of considerable dispute, with those who have researched the subject discovering a number of differing versions of how the croissant came to be invented.

The earliest date that has been provided for the existence of the croissant is 1683, in the midst of the siege of Vienna undertaken by the Ottoman Turks. According to this version of the history, the underground tunnelling by the Ottomans beneath the city walls was heard by a baker working in his shop at night. He then told the military, who destroyed the tunnel from above, preventing them from attacking the city. The baker at the centre of the story then created a pastry shaped like a crescent moon – the Islamic symbol of the Turks – in order that, when the Austrians ate the pastry, they would be symbolically destroying the Turkish invaders.
There are slightly different versions of this origins story, although there are few actual differences in the story itself – only in the nationalities of the protagonists. However another alternative history of the delicacy has the croissant being made popular in France by Marie Antoinette, following her arrival in Versailles from Austria, when she requested that the bakers at the palace reproduce her favourite food. The likelihood is that, the food referred to in this story is the ‘kipfel’, which is a standard part of the Austrian diet and this particular story credits the copy with becoming so popular that it became known around the world as a French invention.
However the version of the history which is most likely to be true, is one which credits the arrival of the pastry in France to an Austrian military officer, who opened a bakery there in which he sold a number of Austrian delicacies, with the kipfel being one of them.








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Tue, Oct 25, 2011
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