When I was a child growing up on Vancouver Island, I had no relationship to the croissant. The closest I’d ever come was a Pillsbury “crescent role” in a cardboard package. I had no idea what a crescent role was, or even that real pastry chefs existed, that there are humans who get degrees in exquisite pastry production. My own baking life revolved around the “Easy-Bake Oven” and cake mixes that came in a box. I never even considered that there were other ways to create cake batter. In fact, I have warm memories of those little cakes that would materialize before my eyes as they floated through tiny toy oven. The “Easy Bake” was a popular Christmas gift between 1963 and 1967. According to google, “Kenner sold 500,000 Easy-Bake Ovens in the first year of production. By 1997, more than 16 million Easy-Bake Ovens (in 11 models) had been sold.” Impressive, although I don’t think I ever saw one again after my tenth birthday.
The “Easy Bake” never offered any real competition to “The French Chef”, which began its American tv debut in 1963. Kenner was catering to a different crowd. Post-1950 America offered its housewives convenience appliances and faster foods. The only folks still cooking from so-called “scratch” (a somewhat derogatory term), were the older immigrants from postwar Europe who still grew a garden, canned their vegetables and made their own breads, sauces and jams, including pickles and preserves. Hats off to the ones who kept real cooking alive during a bleak patch for North American cuisine. Even though my mom could cook, I survived my childhood mainly on Campbell’s soups and factory-processed foods, because that
is what almost everybody did.
Today, I am in Paris and marvelling at the beauty that is croissant! Undoubtedly they are the best in the world with those in my hometown of Montreal coming in for a close second. They are fresh, made every morning. Along with baguettes, aficionados buy them daily from their local store or patisserie. They are exquisite!. And, devised from 85 to 87% butter, how could they not be. The croissant’s origin tale goes something like this. The modern croissant was born around 1839, adapted from a kipferi. The precursor was the Viennoiserie, or “weinerbrød” in Scandinavia. Austrian artillery officer August Zang opened the Boulangerie Viennese in 1838 at 92 rue de Richelieu in Paris. Some say that the kipfel or hörnchen was eaten in celebration of defeating the Ottomans in 1683. (Who knew that it might be connected to Islamophobia!). Austrian-born ruler Marie Antoinette was said to have introduced it to France in the 1770s because she was homesick for Vienna. Perhaps this relates to mythology around the “Let them eat cake!” declaration.
The croissant entered into European literature in the 1840s. Mr. Dickens drew attention to this warm golden beauty after a visit to Paris in 1846. Today, the croissant makes a cameo appearance in various American movies, such as “It’s Complicated”, as well as minor background roles in “Le Weekend,”, “Julia and Julia”, “A Good Year”, along with other iconic images such as The Shakespeare Book Company, Café Des Magots, The Eiffel Tower, and southern beauties such as Provence or Le Midi/the French Riviera.
So whether it was through Dickens, literary or popular culture, the croissant is anchored into perpetuity. As a North American, having pastry for breakfast still seems rather naughty. If you dared trying to warn un Français that the croissant isn’t good for your body, you would probably get a smack across the head. An iconic line from “A Good Year” reminds transgressive Americans ”McDonalds is in Avignon, Fish and Chips in Marseille…Allez!!, as they are shown the door.
As an adult, croissant eating launches an inner debate between my palette and the Canada Food Guide, which was taught in high school. A croissant feels like a member of the same genus as a birthday cake – eaten on a special day when one puts aside all health considerations in favour of fun, celebration and decadence. Croissants are typically eaten with a café au lait although it’s actually surprising that champagne isn’t part of the French breakfast routine…in that similar, reckless, joie de vivre.
After living for a decade in Quebec, I was suspicious about a kind of ‘double think’ related to the croissant’s health benefits claims. Do the French/Quebecois really believe that these little crescent-moon-shaped pastries could be health promoting? While I’d love to ‘drink the coolaid’, part of me remained sceptical. I asked my friend Laurence about this French cultural relationship to croissant, who then announced “you have to eat them, croissants are good for the soul.”
I want to believe. I want to go there with her. However, as a two-time cancer survivor, I know I have to take care of my body, which typically means putting pastries aside in favour of something sensible, like oatmeal, or a smoothy. On the weekend, I sometimes might make whole-grain pancakes with fruit and maple syrup… but that leads us into the terrain of le crèpe, which is another exploration entirely. The crux is this – the croissant is more about French identity than about nutrition. And perhaps the fact that the French snack less than North Americans, eschew “junk food” and walk often strengthens their position around the croissant’s spiritual power.
What might the croissant, and its faithful proponents, tell us about the human heart? Would he (the croissant, masculine en français) talk about love, texture, taste and sensual pleasure? Would he remind us about the important connection to Earth, where golden wheat, cows, grass, milk, sun, water, and then fire, consort, with love, to produce such a revered patisserie? Herein, there are no ingredients that cannot be recognized or pronounced. For the French, whose average life expectancy is 82.5 years, a croissant a day may be out-performing the apple, in terms of keeping the away the proverbial doc. Americans live to 79 years, while Canadians reach 82 years, on average. Perhaps there is something medicinal and life-affirming to be found in this flaky bit of breakfast beauty.