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The croissant is one of France’s most easily identifiable pastries. The flaky crescents are adored and emulated around the globe. Many chefs have made mashups of the butter-laden treats and other well known pastries, resulting in the Cronut and the Cruffin. The Ritz Paris’ renowned pastry chef François Perret has a new way to put a spin on the beloved croissant. He is not combining it with another pastry, but instead wants to change the shape – but he is not giving it a new name. Can you still call it a croissant if it is not a crescent?

Fifteen years ago American Morgan Spurlock documented what happened when he ate only fast food for a month, resulting in the short film Super Size Me. British TV presenter Dr. Chris van Tulleken is following a similar model as he explains what happened after he challenged himself to eat a diet of ultra-processed foods for a month. The results, as you might expect, were not increased vigor and good health.

When the pandemic hit, most of us drastically changed the way we purchased our food. Online grocery shopping became the norm for many, and people tended to avoid going to multiple different stores to buy ingredients they couldn’t find at their local grocer. For me, this meant I was not going to the Asian supermarket that I would normally drive past during my commute. It was difficult to find the items I would frequently purchase there, but that is only because I did not explore the rapidly expanding online options. As Vice’s Bettina Makalintal explains, there has never been a better time to shop online for Asian groceries.

If you were to name the best wine producing regions in the world, England would probably not land at or near the top of your list. That might change after you read an article in The Independent (free registration required) that explains why signs in the English wine industry point to the “genesis of a brand new wine region” that could not merely hold its own with other excellent producers, but could even surpass them.

I like to keep a well-stocked pantry, and that includes having items such as dates, freeze-dried fruit, and dehydrated mushrooms. Dried foods such as these can add a significant flavor boost to your meals, and those examples barely scratch the surface of what’s available. Food and Wine takes a peek inside the pantries of several chefs to bring us 22 dried foods that they always keep in stock to elevate their cooking.

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3 Comments

  • Agaillard  on  June 7, 2021

    Re-the first point….That has raised indeed a very heated debate here in Paris which I think is what he was aiming for 😁 I don’t think you can call it croissant but I think his shape is quite practical to take away and eat and garnish… The online thing is quite interesting as in Paris there was a definite movement to support local shops and have them deliver to you, with platforms such as epicery.com booming (that partners with small independent butchers, bakers, cheesemongers etc and deliver to your door)… This is different in the countryside I think.
    Otherwise I think England has truly excellent bubbly but is still lagging a bit in other categories, as far as I have tasted. A Dorset bubbly actually came first ex aequo with a vintage small producer French champagne and won over a Taittinger champagne at a blind tasting I did on my birthday in 2018 with 30 blind tasters from different countries and six bottles…. I could research the names and scores if anyone is interested!

  • readingtragic  on  June 8, 2021

    I haven’t seen a croissant that looks like this, but none of my most recent croissants, from lots of different places, look like crescents – they are all just rolled and left like that (wide in the middle and tapered at the ends)

  • annmartina  on  June 8, 2021

    Check out Dominique Ansel’s new croissant toasts he has created for his new Hong Kong location. They are round or square and very pretty, of course.

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