Sacré bleu! French MPs are trying to change the name of the pain au chocolat

A long-running debate about whether the pain au chocolat should actually be called the chocolatine has reached French parliament.

Dubbed the ‘pastry wars’, the issue has been raised by a group of MPs from the Gascony region in the south-west.

They’re speaking up on behalf of the lesser-known chocolatine, which is the preferred name for the breakfast staple in their part of France.

They want to see a government amendment to the Countryside and Fisheries code to raise the chocolatine’s profile.

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Aurélien Pradié, MP for the Lot département, said the pastry – “which is the pride of all south-western France” – has “historically been rooted in the Gascon region”.

He added: “This is not just a chocolatine amendment. It’s an amendment that aims to protect popular expressions that give value to culinary expertise.”

However, many believe that the celebrated pastry actually arrived in France via Austria, courtesy of a Mr August Zang.

The Austrian opened a shop in Paris in the 1830s selling, among other things, a croissant containing chocolate, known as the schokoladencroissant. In the southwest, this name eventually morphed into ‘chocolatine’.