WHERE DID PASTRY COME FROM?
There are numerous different types of pastry and even more ways in which to use them, but they usually all come down to a combination of flour, butter, water and salt or sugar (and, in some non-vegan versions, eggs). From ancient tomb paintings and plays, historians have concluded that the ancient Egyptians and Greeks used a filostyle of pastry (made from flour and oil) in their sweet treats, while the Romans were said to be the original creators of the ‘basic pastry dough’. They used this to cover food to stop it from burning during the cooking process – just as we would use tin foil – it was never intended for eating. The only thing these ancient bakers were missing was butter, meaning the pastry lacked the richness we associate with it today; it was not until the medieval period that we started to see the first shortcrust and puff pastries (or early versions of them). From there pastry was adopted by many different generations and evolved steadily over time, until Marie- Antoine Careme (essentially, the first celeb chef) took it to the next level, reportedly creating the first mille-feuille.