Until culinary school I never thought twice about the history of bakery items such as the St. Honore cake and truth be told, I didn't really care. However, when you have food historians come in and give lectures on the history of cheese or a lecture on the different methods of making wine throughout history, you cant help but become interested in this under discussed topic and start asking the question 'where does it come from?', 'where did it get it's shape?' every time you pass a patisserie.
Fellow food lovers let me tell you the story of the croissant...once upon a time in town called Vienna there lived a hard working baker named Peter. Now Peter would wake up in the small hours of the morning to start baking his lovely breads, until one morning he heard unusual sounds coming from below his bakery. Turns out the Turkish army was planning an attack on Vienna and were tunneling under the city. Peter gave the alarm and the Turkish army had not choice but to retreat, leaving Peter a hero. The Viennese bakers decided to make a bread to honor this day in history, so they made the crescent shaped croissant to represent the moon on the Turkish flag. The croissant has developed since 1683 and has come to be the flakey, butter, French croissant that we know today. This story has been deemed 'myth' by many food historians; however, no one has ever been able to disprove this theory. To keep the magic alive, I am going to say that I believe this story is true.
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