Mrs. Tetzlaff’s B block Real Meals class and Madame Filskov’s B block French 2 class teamed up on Tuesday, December 22, 2009.  The purpose of the collaboration was for Mrs. Tetzlaff’s class to bake viennoiseries – a type of French pastry, and for Madame Filskov’s class to research the history of the pastry and share their findings with Mrs. Tetzlaff’s students.  All students participated in a dégustation – that is, a tasting of the treats.

The most well-known example of viennoiserie is the croissant, about which there are several stories of origin.  One dates from 1683 in Vienna, Austria, the city from which the term viennoiserie comes.  It was the dawn of the second siege of Vienna by Ottoman Turks, and Viennese bakers – who were up and baking well before sunrise – thwarted the enemy’s attack by warning the people of Vienna of the lurking Ottoman threat.  The bakers then baked small, crescent-shaped pastries – reminiscent of the Ottoman flag – in celebration of their defeat.  Marie-Antoinette of Austria, native of Vienna, subsequently brought the croissant to France by way of her personal baker upon her marriage to King Louis XVI in 1774.

The croissant has been a global success since the 1920s, the era known as La Belle Époque (or the Gilded Age), thanks to car, plane, and rail travel.

BON APPETIT!