August Zang and the French Croissant: How Viennoiserie Came to France

Yes, an Austrian brought the croissant to France - but it wasn't Marie-Antoinette. In 1839, the Parisian press began to mention a new "Viennese Bakery" (Boulangerie Viennoise) and its "exquisite and crisp rolls". August Zang, its founder, had been an artillery officer and would become a press magnate. In his short time in Paris, he not only introduced the "kipfel" - the Austrian crescent roll - but techniques which would one day (in 1920) make the baguette possible. This is a brief look at his bakery and its influence on French baking and at his later career - when he would be called "the father of the Austrian daily press".