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Started by Ravi Subramanian (@ravi_eats) ·

is the croissant actually Austrian?

Kind of both. The kipferl, a crescent-shaped roll, goes back centuries in Austria. The flaky laminated croissant came much later in France, after a Viennese bakery made the shape fashionable in Paris. The siege-of-Vienna origin story is a legend.

6 sources · 30 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
Is the croissant Austrian or French?
Ended at
Battle of Vienna

The Trail

  1. “croissant origin vienna ottoman” (google.com)
  2. Croissant (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Kifli (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. August Zang (en.wikipedia.org)

    an Austrian who opened a Viennese bakery in Paris in the late 1830s

  5. Viennoiserie (en.wikipedia.org)
  6. Battle of Vienna (en.wikipedia.org)

    the legend: bakers made crescents to mock the Ottoman flag. no evidence

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