A little outside validation is always nice.

While I was gone, a reader by the name of Jim Chevalier chimed in on an old post about the history of croissants. The email went like this:

Congratulations! You’re the first (other) person I’ve seen so far who bothered to check just WHO was besieger and besieged in Budapest (you would think the person who revised the Larousse Gastronomique in 2001 would have done that, but non.)

You might be interested to know that one can in fact date the arrival of the croissant in Paris rather precisely to 1838 or 1839, when a certain August Zang founded a Viennese bakery in Paris.

There now. I knew I wasn’t crazy (or at least not totally so). Mr. Chevalier has in fact written a book on the subject. Chalk up another victory for the forces of baking history esoterica! Clearly, a man after my own heart. I shall look forward to acquiring a copy.