The War Over Chocolate Croissants

Founded by the Romans, with three UNESCO World Heritage sites within its limits, and on the route of the famous Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, the city of Toulouse is well known for its cultural and culinary prowess–think French cassoulet, duck confit and the Toulouse sausage.

But what is less well known is Toulouse’s love of something called the chocolatine, what the rest of France calls the pain au chocolat, and what Americans call chocolate croissants.

They are so determined to claim the word, that they are trying to make World Chocolatine Day a thing–every 16 November, after having held the first one in 2018 (more recent World Chocolatine Days had to be cancelled due to the pandemic). The local radio station, Toulouse FM, as reported by The Local, celebrated the event, with helpers handing out chocolatines in and around the local streets to passers-by.

There are lots of theories about how the famous pastry came to France, some associated with the British and others with Marie Antoinette. However, most feel that it was brought into the country by an Austrian baker, August Zang, who opened a pastry shop in Paris in the 1830s, mixing Viennese croissants with chocolate–he called them schokoladencroissant.

Locals in Toulouse feels so strongly about legitimizing their word that they have tried in the past to table a government motion to give the chocolatine the same nationwide status as the pain au chocolat. As reported by The Guardian, however, the national assembly voted against the motion in 2018, and across the country, according to a 2019 poll, 84% of the French think of the pastry as a pain au chocolat.

What might be even more confusing is that in the Ardennes, it is called a couque au chocolat, in Alsace, a croissant au chocolat and in Hauts-de-France, the petit pain au chocolat.

Whilst it might not the most pressing issue facing France at present, try telling that to the bakers in the southwest, who have threatened in the past to charge more to customers who ask for a pain au chocolat, rather than a chocolatine.