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

by Jim Chevallier

Overview

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" and its "exquisite and crisp rolls". 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 later make the baguette possible. This is a brief look at his bakery and its influence on French baking and at his later career as "the father of the Austrian daily press". This second edition includes a look at the rue de Richelieu and changes in Paris shops.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940011894589
Publisher:	Chez Jim
Publication date:	10/12/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	94
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Jim Chevallier is both a performer and a researcher, having worked as a radio announcer (WCAS, WBUR and WBZ-FM), acted (on NBC's "Passions", and numerous smaller projects) and published an essay on breakfast in 18th century France (in Wagner and Hassan's "Consuming Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century") in addition to researching and translating several historical works of his own. As a bread historian, he is a contributor to the "Dictionnaire Universel du Pain" (Laffont), having written, among others, the articles on the baguette and the croissant.

It was as an actor that he began to write monologues for use by others, resulting in his first collection, "The Monologue Bin". This has been followed by several others over the years, including "Suicide Monologues for Actors and Others", portraying the impact of suicide on a variety of characters' lives.

Work on an historical novel led him to the subject of historical food, starting with the essay mentioned above and "How to Cook a Peacock", a new translation of Taillevent's "Le Viandier". Two collections based around 18th century menus and recipes followed (in the series "Apres Moi, le Dessert"). The discovery that Marie-Antoinette did NOT bring the croissant to France ultimately led him to the person who did: August Zang, also Austrian and a fascinating figure in himself. (The second edition of "August Zang and the French Croissant", revised and much expanded, is now available.) Research for this book led to further inquiries into the baguette and other French breads and ultimately to his work with Jean-Philippe de Tonnac on the "Dictionnaire Universel du Pain".

His interest in the eighteenth century has also led to research on police and criminal matters of the period, some of which is available in "The Old Regime Police Blotter I: Bloodshed, Sex and Violence in Pre-Revolutionary France" and "The Old Regime Police Blotter II: Sodomites, Tribads and Crimes Against Nature" and in an annotated reissue of an eighteenth century account of the Bastille (Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet's "Memoirs of the Bastille").

Books by Jim Chevallier have been acquired by a number of libraries across the United States and abroad and several of his monologues have been included in anthologies.