Original subtitles

The croissant.

Whether you like yours plain, smothered in jam,

or even filled with ham and cheese,

this French classic is a British favorite.

Helping to put a smile on our faces at breakfast time.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Every year,

we tear our way through a quarter of a billion of them.

Satisfying that demand requires baking on a massive scale.

And to find out how it's done, I've

come to their spiritual home, France,

to one of the biggest croissant factories in the world.

316 people work here producing a staggering 18,000

croissants every hour.

[laughter]

I'm Gregg Wallace.

That is fantastic.

That is a massage parlor for croissants.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And I'm

discovering the culinary care that goes into our daily bread.

It's a big, sticky chewing gum.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): I'm Cherry Healey.

[laughter]

You could hurt someone with those.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): And I'm pulling back the layers

of this flaky pastry.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And historian Ruth Goodman--

That looks quite croissanty to me.

Yes. [laughs]

LOIC BIENASSIS: But actually, it's not.

It's not a croissant? LOIC BIENASSIS: No.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): --is investigating the croissant's

surprising origins.

Oh, that's so much more dense.

Over the next 24 hours, this factory

will produce a staggering 336,000 croissants.

Welcome to "Inside the Factory."

[music playing]

This is the Brioche Pasquier Factory near the city

of Valence in southeast France.

This five and a half acre site produces seven different types

of pastries and brioche, churning out more than 500

million of them every year.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): They ship to 20 different countries,

supplying brioche to Belgium and pain au lait to Portugal.

But we're following production of one

of their most popular UK exports, their six

pack of butter croissants.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Production

begins at the intake area with the delivery of beurre.

No, I'm not cold.

That's just French for butter.

[horn]

As the first pallet comes off the lorry,

our production process begins.

[beeping]

To find out what happens next, I'm meeting the company's CEO,

Pascal Pasquier.

You are Pascal?

Yeah.

Gregg.

Good morning.

Good morning, Gregg.

Nice to meet you.

This is the very start of your croissant production, right?

Yeah.

How much butter is on there?

In this lorry, we have around 21 tons of butter.

GREGG WALLACE: How many croissants would that make?

Four million.

Four million?

Four million croissants.

Can I look at the butter?

Yeah, of course.

Of course.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Each one of these pallets

holds 80 10 kilo blocks.

Wow.

How important is butter with the croissants?

What does-- what does it give?

With this butter is the taste.

So with no butter, no croissant, right?

No butter, no croissant.

GREGG WALLACE: That seems to me to be very dark.

What butter is this?

This butter is concentrate butter.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): This concentrated butter

has a fat content of 99.8%, nearly 20%

higher than the stuff in your fridge.

If it's got more fat, it's got less water, right?

Yeah.

Why do you want less water?

Because for the shelf life.

Ah.

Because we produce without preservative.

I'm not a scientist, but the bacteria would be in the water.

Yeah.

And that's what would make the croissants go off?

That's it.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): This special butter

helps to give our croissants a shelf life of up to 29 days.

Before entering the factory, every delivery

is checked to ensure it's the perfect temperature.

Pascal, what temperature do you want?

Maximum 16 degrees.

What happens if it goes above 16?

It will melt.

Oh, of course. [laughter]

Yeah.

And it doesn't work.

- GREGG WALLACE: Yeah, I got it. - It doesn't work anymore.

Sorry. Pardon.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): I know.

I know.

Give me a break, will you?

Until the butter is needed on the production line,

it's stored at a cool 15 degrees Celsius in one

of 18 giant refrigerators.

[music playing]

So I'm off to the propagation room,

which I'm led to believe holds the factory's

most prized possession.

The person I'm here to see is research and development

manager Lor Corbelle.

Hello.

Hi.

Where are we?

What is this?

We are in the levain room.

Levain?

Levain.

That means "the wine."

Oh, it's the same pronunciation,

but we don't put wine in our croissant dough.

[laughter]

What is levain?

It's our mother dough.

Right. Oh, OK.

Yeah.

All bakers have kind of like a mother dough

that all baking starts from?

Exactly.

Exactly.

So what is it exactly?

Tell me.

So levain is a natural dough that contains yeast, bacterias.

And what does that do?

This is like a concentrated flavor for our product, and--

That-- that looks like normal dough.

This is dough that we're going to add

to our croissant dough for the flavor just like a stock cube.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Yes.

As strange as it sounds, this flavor

packed dough will be fed into the main dough mix

further down the line, helping to give our croissants

their unique taste.

If this has got all the flavor, right?

Yes.

Why don't you make the croissants out of this dough?

Oh, because this would be too strong.

The microorganism, the yeast and the bacterias,

develops and creates this very acid taste.

And this you can smell.

This smells like acids.

Yeah.

That's-- that is acidic.

So a little pinch of this goes a long, long way?

Yes.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): A very, very long way indeed.

Just one of these 12 kilo boxes is enough to flavor

3,000 croissants.

Like a beloved household pet, this living organism

needs regular feeding to keep it alive,

so it gets a generous daily ration of flour and water.

That means that every croissant made here

can get its flavor from the same levain.

Where did the original levain come from?

The original levain come from Gabriel, the father of Pascal.

Whoa.

One minute, one minute, one minute, one minute.

Pascal who I met earlier, his father

made the original one of these?

LOR CORBELLE: Yes.

In 1936.

So every day since 1936, you take from the levain

to give flavor, and then you put some flour and water

back in to make it grow again?

Yes.

And then you take it, and then you put back in again.

- Every day? - Yes.

Every day. GREGG WALLACE: Since 1930?

Yes.

[laughter]

That's crazy.

And it will never die.

It--

As long as you make croissants,

it will always stay alive.

Yes.

As long as we take care of this, refreshing it every day.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): We're now 30 minutes in,

and with 24 kilos of freshly fermented levain,

we're heading from propagation to the mixing room.

Down there?

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Where we're going to make a 300

kilo batch of croissants dough.

Right.

Here?

- Here. - Right.

What are we looking at?

So here this is the mixing area.

Right, so what goes in first?

- Levain. - Levain?

Yes.

Shall I. Shall I do it?

Yes.

Crikey.

Oh, my god.

This is hard work.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): First, we

need to coax our two helpings of levain

out of their cozy containers.

It's a big, sticky, chewing gum.

LOR CORBELLE: Yeah.

[laughter]

Perfect.

[laughter]

And then you have the fresh yeast.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Our levain already has some yeast

in it, but we need to add a little extra into the mix

to help the dough rise.

And after that, something I definitely wasn't expecting.

So right now, that is a lot of ice.

That's a lot of ice.

If you'd have asked me to list all

the ingredients in a croissant, ice

would never have made the list.

LOR CORBELLE: The ice is added for the temperature.

GREGG WALLACE: Why do you want it cold?

LOR CORBELLE: The dough needs to be cold

because you never want the butter to melt,

so the dough needs to be cooled.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): But there's

still no butter in sight.

And that's not the only thing missing.

Like a fairground teacup ride, my mixing bowl

is spun around into position under the blender.

Here, 50 liters of water along with 150 kilos of plain flour,

30 kilos of sugar, and 10 kilos of rapeseed oil

drops down the shoe, and the whole lot

gets whisked together.

GREGG WALLACE: Sugar just for sweetness, right?

Yes.

Flavor, sweetness.

What's the oil for?

Oil is for softness, and it's also really helps for the dough

to be workable.

All right.

We got sugar.

We got rapeseed oil to make it workable.

We're now getting together a dough.

Yes.

Now what happens?

The most important ingredients are flour and water

because flour and water are going to combine

together and create gluten.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): On its own,

flour is surprisingly gluten free.

But when you add water and start to make a dough,

two proteins in the flour, glutenin in gliadin

fuse together to form gluten.

What does gluten do?

The gluten is--

it's-- it's like a network, and it's going to hold the gas

bubble produced by the yeast, and that's going to help

for the croissant to rise.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): After a 20 minute spin at 85 RPM,

all the ingredients in my 300 kilo mix

have combined into dough, and we've created

that vital gluten network.

GREGG WALLACE: That's our dough.

That's our dough.

GREGG WALLACE: What happens to it now?

LOR CORBELLE: So now, the dough needs

to rest for about one hour.

One hour?

I don't even get that for lunch.

Why's it got to rest for one hour?

So at this step, the gluten needs to relax.

I don't know if you can see how it breaks easily.

And you need it to be more springy.

We need it to be more stretchy,

to be more workable afterwards.

Is it a bit like us if we have a tough day at work?

We're like this.

It's exactly the same.

And we need to go.

Exactly.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): After it's rigorous workout

in the mixer, our dough is settling in for some well

deserved R and R.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Ah, what

could be more French than cycling along the River Seine?

And if there's one food that is quintessentially French

is the croissant.

But how did these pastries become icons of French cuisine?

[bike bell]

[music playing]

- Loic? - Ruth.

[laughter]

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Helping

me uncover the origins of the croissant

is food historian Loic Bienassis.

So what on Earth is the history of the croissant?

LOIC BIENASSIS: Actually, that's a tricky question.

However, we may have one link, and that's this one.

Oh.

Well, that looks quite croissanty to me.

Yes. [laughs]

LOIC BIENASSIS: But actually, it's not.

It's not a croissant? LOIC BIENASSIS: No.

It's an Austrian pastry.

A kipferl.

A kipferl?

That's right.

Oh, it doesn't feel like a croissant.

It's much more solid.

No, no.

It's more like a short crust.

Cause a croissant, as you know, it's more a puff pastry.

You can check.

Oh, that's so much more dense.

Yeah, precisely.

It's completely different inside.

LOIC BIENASSIS: Very different.

Yeah.

More like a bread.

Oh, it is.

It's almost-- it's not even sweet.

But how on Earth did this Austrian pastry

end up in Paris?

I can tell you the story.

Actually, it took place not far from here.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Loic is taking me on a stroll

into the bustling city center to see where it all began.

You see, in front of us, you have the 92 Rue de Richelieu.

And at this very place, we have this Boulangerie Viennoise.

Oh!

A Viennese bakery.

LOIC BIENASSIS: Precisely.

It was opened in 1838, but it's not here anymore, of course.

So there was a Viennese bakery just there.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Boulangerie Viennoise brought

the Austrian fashion for luxurious pastries,

including kipferls, to cosmopolitan 1830s Paris.

When then did the kipferl become French?

So we have this 1853 recipe.

[speaking french] It's the first time

we have a pastry called croissant in France.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): So 15 years after the bakery opened,

the name "croissant", which simply means "crescent",

made its first appearance.

RUTH GOODMAN: And is this a recipe

that is the modern croissant?

I mean, is it--

No.

No, it's not because, for instance, you have no butter.

RUTH GOODMAN: Ah.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): This 19th century croissant

was still closer to the Austrian kipferl than the modern pastry.

So we got the-- the shape in 1838.

Then we get the name in 1853.

Right.

But when is the modern croissant born?

We have another recipe here, which is the first we

have of the modern croissant.

Right.

Published in 1906.

Oh, so 20th century.

Yes, the 20th century.

And that's the very first time we have the modern croissant.

So it's bit by bit.

We've got these Austrian ancestors that arrive in Paris,

give us the shape, then we get the name,

and then finally the recipe developed--

Exactly.

- -in the late 19th century.

Exactly.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Nearly 70 years

after Boulangerie Viennoise opened,

the modern question was born.

And over the following century, it

grew in popularity to become a fundamental part

of French cuisine.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): At the factory,

the butter for my butter croissants

arrived over two hours ago, and is still in the fridge.

So while it's been chilling, we've

knocked up a 300 kilo lump of butterless croissants

dough, which has spent the past hour doing very little.

Just resting and relaxing.

A bit like me on holiday.

Right.

In the hour that it has rested, what has happened to it?

The gluten has relaxed.

Now, we can see how stretchy it is.

You can feel it.

GREGG WALLACE: Not as tight.

Not as tense.

Not as tight as it was right after the kneading process.

GREGG WALLACE: Right.

So in there, we have how much?

300 kilos?

Yes.

300 kilos ready to make 6,000 croissants.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): My chilled

out dough now gets a rude awakening as it's tipped

into a giant hopper, cut into more manageable 10 kilo chunks,

and rolled out onto a conveyor.

What is it doing?

Oh.

This is les tapoters.

Tapoters?

"Tapoter" in French means gently tap.

GREGG WALLACE: Tapoters.

- LOR CORBELLE: Yes. - OK.

[laughs]

So this machine is spreading the dough gently.

GREGG WALLACE: It seems really slow to me.

LOR CORBELLE: It is slow because we really want to respect

the artisanal process.

With this, are you trying to do what a baker would do?

LOR CORBELLE: Yes.

That's exactly what the baker would do with his hands.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Simply rolling out

the dough now could overwork the gluten

and make for tough croissants.

So inside the massage parlor, two sets of paddles

gently flatten and squeeze while 11 spinning rollers

lovingly caress out the kinks.

[music playing]

Only after it's been gently spread out

does a giant mechanical rolling pin compress it to a thickness

of one and a half centimeters.

Finally, butter me up.

I've got the butter, Lor. [laughter]

LOR CORBELLE: Hey.

At last.

Where's it go?

Oh, you can put it up here.

Whoa.

That's a lot of butter.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): My chilled pallet

of sunshiny goodness is a perfect 15 degrees

Celsius and ready for action.

Perfect.

Excellent.

Well-- [laughs]

See that?

See that?

British finesse.

At some stage, you've got to soften this, right?

To mix it with the dough.

Oh, no.

We want it hard, for the butter to become a layer.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): My rock-solid chilled butter

now makes its way slowly down through this insatiable

machine, which chomps through 100 kilos every hour,

and then forces it back out through a tiny gap

just 7.5 millimeters thick and 22 centimeters wide.

Whoa.

That is one strong machine because that

is rock-hard butter, right?

LOR CORBELLE: Yes.

It's an extruder, so it's two cylinders

that extrude the butter on the dough that we made earlier.

GREGG WALLACE: I'm impressed with that.

I really am.

And so now, that butter now is going in the middle of wrapped

over dough.

Yes.

So the dough is going to be fold onto itself.

So this is our first layer of butter

in between two layers of dough.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The process

of sandwiching butter in between dough is known as lamination,

and it's the cornerstone of croissant pastry.

This lamination, how important is this to you here?

So this is very important to get the flakiness

of the croissant, which is the very

famous texture of the croissant, the French croissant.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Our doughy, buttery sandwich

now travels down the line to the lamination room.

In here, it gets folded again until there

are four separate laminations.

It's then cut into 80 centimeters sheets

and sent to the stacker.

Right.

What's happening?

So at this step, the dough has already been folded in order

to get four layers of butter.

And I can actually see the layers there.

Yes. GREGG WALLACE: Yeah.

Very, very clearly.

And then it's the final process to get our final number

of layers, which is 12.

Why 12 layers?

Well, 12 layers is the best compromise

to get the softness of the croissant

and also the flakiness of the dough.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): To get that magic number,

the stacker simply lays three strips on top of each other.

So what happens to this now?

Does it get squashed?

No.

Now, the dough needs to rest.

Rest again?

Yes.

Because you've worked it so hard, right?

Exactly.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): To rest up,

my laminated dough now heads off on a leisurely 40-minute stroll

around the factory.

Look at that.

Soft, crispy, and flaky.

Lamination may not sound delicious,

but the results most certainly are.

But how does this magical layering process

create the perfect croissant?

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): The man with the answers is food

scientist Dr. Stuart Farrimond.

Bonjour!

Bonjour.

- Bonjour. - Nice to see you, Cherry.

We're going to do an experiment here.

We're going to make a croissant without the layering

just as an experiment to see how important the layering is,

and why we should do it.

Layerless croissant.

Somewhere in France, people are crying.

[laughter] [music playing]

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): We're working

with a standard croissant recipe,

but instead of making the dough and layering

the butter in afterwards--

Everything in. That's the yeast.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): --we're

mixing it all in at once.

This is the laziest croissant that have ever been made.

[mixer]

Ooh.

And you can see it's really wet, and it's quite slimy.

That's really slimy and sticky.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): This rich mix

is similar to conventional, enriched dough.

STUART FARRIMOND: Excellent.

Oh, look at those.

Look at that.

I rolled it out, and I shaped them into croissants like that.

OK.

OK?

No layering at all.

So in every other way other than the lack of layering,

that's a croissant.

Yes.

I'm really excited to see what they're going to be like.

[music playing]

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): After 20 minutes in the oven,

our all-in-one croissants are ready.

- There we go. - Ooh.

Look at that.

They're a bit flat.

STUART FARRIMOND: Not that bad.

Oh, my god.

[laughter]

You could hurt someone with those.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): But it's what's

on the inside that counts.

STUART FARRIMOND: Wow.

I mean, it's not your normal question.

That's for sure.

STUART FARRIMOND: It's very bready.

It's very bready and very dense.

It doesn't have any of that light flakiness.

There's no crispy kind of layers on it.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): With no butter layers to separate

the dough, it's all stuck together,

and we've ended up with a stodgy kind of scone.

So how does the layering create

that light, fluffy croissant?

Experimenting time.

Here we go.

[music playing]

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): This time,

we're sticking with tradition.

We've made the dough first, and now we're

adding the butter separately.

So we're making a little butter parcel.

Mine's stuck to the table and yours looks like a nappy.

Three layers of butter.

That's very clever.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): My version

is staying like this with just three folded layers

while Dr. Stu is following the technique

used in our croissant factory.

I'm going to keep rolling mine--

- OK. - --until we get to 12 layers.

CHERRY HEALEY: Yes. And

Then we're going to see what the difference is.

How come you get 12 layers and I get three?

That's just selfish.

STUART FARRIMOND: Because mine-- mine's going to be better.

[laughter]

[music playing]

You can really, really see the layers.

STUART FARRIMOND: Mhm.

In that one, the layers are really thick.

STUART FARRIMOND: Mhm.

But in the 12, they're much thinner.

STUART FARRIMOND: They're tiny, yeah.

It's the same amount of butter,

but just different effect.

OK.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): These buttery

layers are vital because they'll provide our dough with that all

important separation.

First ever croissant.

[gasp] There she is.

STUART FARRIMOND: Cher, that's amazing.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): But what difference will

having three or 12 layers make?

STUART FARRIMOND: In they go.

Who's going to win?

Me.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): As the croissants heat up,

moisture in the butter and dough turns

to steam, pushing apart the pastry layers,

causing them to rise.

You can smell it, can't you?

They both look pretty good.

Let's see what it looks like.

OK.

I'll cut that one.

STUART FARRIMOND: Getting hungry.

I know. Me too.

Yours-- oh, yours is so flaky, and mine

was really quite solid to cut.

STUART FARRIMOND: Mhm.

Whereas yours almost collapsed it was so full of air.

When it goes into the scorching hot oven,

the moisture from the butter and the moisture from the dough

rapidly turns into steam, and that forces each layer apart.

That's called pastry lift.

Pastry lift.

STUART FARRIMOND: The more layers, the more

pockets of air forming it, the higher it rises,

and the lighter the texture and the more flaky croissant

will be.

CHERRY HEALEY: Because mine's only got three layers,

there's only three chances for it to get some lift.

STUART FARRIMOND: And you can see the difference.

Mm.

Mine is still tasty.

STUART FARRIMOND: Mhm.

And buttery, but it's heavy.

Try this one.

Mm.

Mm.

Yours is light, and flaky, and delicious.

So the layers are key.

STUART FARRIMOND: Mm.

Can you have too many layers?

Yes, because if you have too many layers, it gets too flaky,

and you lose that lovely croissant texture.

So get the right number of layers,

and 12 is a great number.

The French really do know what they're doing, don't they?

The French do know what they're doing.

CHERRY HEALEY (VOICEOVER): Forget three.

12 most certainly is the magic number.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Back at the factory,

we're nearly three and a half hours into the croissant

making process.

[beep]

My laminated dough with 12 layers of butter

has finished its 40-minute rest and is now workable enough

to hit the production line.

Here, it's rolled to five millimeters thick,

and has its edges trimmed, ready for the cutter.

GREGG WALLACE: Oh, I like that I do like those patterns.

I didn't know a croissant started off as a triangle.

Yes, it does.

So this machine will cut the dough

into triangles to get to the final shape

to roll the croissant.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Once the mechanical cookie cutter

has carved our dough into triangles,

a set of razor sharp blades slice them into five rows.

A faster moving conveyor then singles them out and lines them

all up in the same direction.

Only then do they disappear inside the factory's

top secret rolling machine.

So show me then what this secret machine does.

So this secret machine rolls 300 croissants per minute.

300 every minute?

Every minute.

I don't think you've got a machine.

I think you actually do them all by hand.

LOR CORBELLE: Well, let's see how

many you can do in 10 seconds.

All right.

Ready?

Three, two, one, go.

Ah!

[beep]

Time out.

You can do one in 10 seconds.

The machine is better than you.

Sorry.

[laughter]

Yes.

The machine is better than me.

LOR CORBELLE: But this is not too bad.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Well, you can't say I didn't try.

Fortunately, the top secret machine

can roll a much better croissant than me,

which is a good thing because it churns out 18,000 an hour.

We're-- we're making a batch of 6,000?

Yes.

How long will it take for 6,000 croissants

to pass through?

It takes about 20 minutes.

GREGG WALLACE: These are straight, right?

But croissants are curved?

Oh, the ones that are curved are the one

with vegetable oil in there.

These ones are made of butter.

That's why they are straight.

Really?

Yes.

I never knew that.

I never knew that.

The straight ones have butter, and the curved ones vegetable

oil?

Well, in France traditionally, yes.

GREGG WALLACE: If we are visiting France,

a straight one will be butter. LOR CORBELLE: Yes.

GREGG WALLACE: That's brilliant. LOR CORBELLE: Yeah.

GREGG WALLACE: I never knew that.

I love it when I learn things like this.

I love it.

are subjected to a thorough inspection

as each one needs to be 11 centimeters long

and between 45 and 46 grams.

GREGG WALLACE: 45.9.

Perfect.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Luckily,

my batch has passed this test, but they've still

got a lot to prove in the factory's 3,500 cubic meter

proving room.

Whoa.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

OK.

Right.

That is hot, and it is steamy.

It's almost tropical, right?

My glasses are steaming up.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): And it's no wonder.

Having already been to the massage parlor,

my dough now gets a sauna.

This proving room is kept at 30 degrees

Celsius and 80% humidity.

In these tropical conditions, the yeast

gorges on the sugars in the dough and expels carbon

dioxide, making the croissants expand by 150%.

It'll take two hours for the dough to fully rise,

so I'll check in with my croissants later on.

As well as croissants, the French love their bread.

And as Ruth's finding out, it's played an important role

in the country's history.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Place de La Concorde, Paris.

It was here in the autumn of 1793

that Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, faced the guillotine.

[shouting]

It was the height of the French Revolution.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Marie Antoinette

was hated by revolutionaries, who wanted to overthrow

the French monarchy.

RUTH GOODMAN: It was claimed that when she heard

that Parisians were starving due to the lack of bread,

she declared, "Let them eat cake."

Or in French, "Let them eat brioche."

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): The phrase

came to epitomize the conflict between the royal family

and the French people.

But is there really a link between bread

and the French Revolution?

[music playing]

- Stephane? - Ruth.

[laughter]

- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Food writer Stephane Henaut

has researched the role bread has played

in a city where a trip to the boulangerie

is still a daily ritual.

Can we really lay responsibility

for the French Revolution upon bread?

Well, there's a lot of reasons why the French Revolution

happened, but yes, one can say that bread--

and especially the lack of bread--

was the fuel behind the motto of the French Revolution.

So how important historically was bread?

It's very hard actually to overstate

the importance of bread in France

at the end of the 18th century.

Especially for poor people, up to 95%

of the daily caloric intake could be met just with bread.

95%?

Yes.

People would eat between one and three pounds of bread per day.

Can you imagine that?

Good, gracious.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): Feeding

the masses meant ensuring a plentiful supply of bread.

Any shortage had a huge impact on people's lives.

In 1788, the harvest was terrible that year.

There was not enough grain, and the price of-- of bread

skyrocketed.

Now obviously, this created a dramatic situation

for most people who were told they were

going to die of starvation.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): By the summer of 1789,

bread had become increasingly scarce.

Thousands of Parisians went hungry.

On the 5th of October 1789, a crowd of up to 10,000 people

gathered here in front of the town hall to ask for bread.

[music playing]

And it was a crowd which was made up mostly of women.

Women?

Yes, women were in charge of buying bread for their family.

You could have women waiting in line for hours in front

of a boulangerie hoping to get bread

just to be told that there was not enough bread for everybody.

Or if there it was, it was such an expensive price that they

could not feed their families.

So what was the mood of the crowd?

They were just desperate.

They thought they were dying of hunger, that they

would starve to death, so people in Paris

started blaming the King.

The idea quickly spread that they should ask

the King directly for bread.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): The women set out on a 12 mile

march from the town hall to the Palace

of Versailles, the King's residence

on the outskirts of Paris.

It must have been quite a sight

seeing this procession of women.

Well, I've got here a picture which

actually shows all those women going to Versailles.

And as you can see, a lot of women on the picture

are having weapons.

Some pikes and clubs, but you can

also see that they're actually lugging

around a cannon with them.

RUTH GOODMAN: OK.

[laughs] They're quite intimidating.

Yes.

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): The mood among the crowd

soon turned ugly.

STEPHANE HENAUT: The National Guard managed to restore peace.

However, the King now also had to promise

the demonstrators that he would go back to Paris with them.

[music playing]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): The next day

the royal family, escorted by the protesters,

left Versailles for the capital.

This was one of the key events of 1789,

because from now on, the King would be a de facto

prisoner of the Parisian mob.

And this situation much later on would help the Republicans

to actually declare the first French Republic,

put the King on trial, and send him to the guillotine.

[guillotine dropping]

[cheering]

RUTH GOODMAN (VOICEOVER): The revolution

that brought about the end of the royal family created

the France we know today.

RUTH GOODMAN: Perhaps history would have turned out

completely differently if only the French monarchy had

made sure that everyone had enough bread.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): 300 miles south of Paris

in Valence, my croissants have been

proving in the sauna for two hours

and have expanded by 150%.

Finally, they can head to the oven.

[beep]

Wow.

Yeah, they-- they've really grown.

Yes.

They look great.

LOR CORBELLE: And here, you can see there's

still the 12 layers of butter.

It's still there.

GREGG WALLACE: Of course.

Without being cooked, even though it's got bigger,

those layers are still there?

They're still there.

Perfect.

What are you spraying on it?

Well, this is milk protein with water,

and it helps for the croissant to be shiny at the end.

Do you know what?

The more I learn about the croissant, the more I like it.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): As our croissants trundle slowly

through the giant conveyor oven, the 200 degree heat

triggers a chemical process known as the Maillard reaction

where the protein glaze reacts with sugars in the dough,

turning my pallet pastries into bronzed beauties.

Ha, ha!

They're toasty.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): During a 15-minute bake,

moisture in the dough evaporates, pushing

those 12 layers out until--

[music playing]

There they are.

Yeah.

That's a pretty sight.

Nice, and brown, and glazed.

Enough butter, lots of folding.

That has taken far longer than I ever imagined.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Nearly five and a half hours,

in fact, to get from raw ingredients

to finished, baked pastry.

What happens to them now?

So now, they're going to cool down for about one hour.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): My piping hot croissants now

head into this sealed room where they

get to enjoy another 60-minute chill-out session.

But once they've cooled, there's still one

final test they need to pass.

So this is one other quality check, the final volume

of our croissant.

The volume?

LOR CORBELLE: The volume.

Hello?

Yeah.

I can't hear a thing.

The volume is terrible.

[laughs]

This is to make sure the croissant has risen enough.

Since the shape of a croissant is very specific,

we're using the displacement method using rapeseeds.

Why do you use rapeseed?

Because it's so fine?

Well, because it's so tiny that it

can fill all of the gaps, and it's also food safe.

Oh.

So this is our leveled box.

We know the exact weight of the rapeseeds is in this box.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Four croissants

are placed in the box then covered in rapeseeds.

Do you know I've been to many, many factories,

and I have never seen this ever?

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The weight

of seeds left over will tell us exactly how much space

those pastries are taking up.

So the more seeds spilled, the bigger the croissant.

Brilliant.

What weight are you looking for?

We want it to be between 500 and 600 grams.

Yeah. You got it.

OK.

So the croissants are good?

Yes.

What would you do if the croissants were the wrong size?

We would adjust the recipe by adding more or less yeasts.

Lor, thank you.

Thank you.

You explained croissants to me very patiently.

- [laughs] Thank you. - Thank you very much.

- It was nice to meet you. - Au revoir.

Au revoir.

[laughs]

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): In France, my 6,000 freshly baked

croissants have now finished cooling,

so I'm heading to the packing area.

[beeping]

The man in charge is Olivier Ripoche.

Wonderful.

GREGG WALLACE: These have now cooled down?

Yes.

Now all we are-- they're ready to be packing, OK?

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): It's taken well over six hours

to get to this point.

These croissants are all destined for the family size

six pack, but they're wrapped in pairs

first so two can be opened and eaten

without the others going stale.

GREGG WALLACE: They look like they could fall off.

No, no.

They will-- they will be stuck to the-- to the belt.

There is no problem at all.

[laughter]

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): To stop it raining pastry in here,

sticky rubber strips on the conveyors

keep the croissants firmly in place on their way

to a machine called the pickup.

I love these.

I've seen these pickers at other factories,

but this may be the most delicate

picker I've ever seen because that is a delicate product.

OLIVIER RIPOCHE: Yes.

We control how we take it very gently.

GREGG WALLACE: Very gently.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): Each of these laser-guided dancing

arms uses four suction cups to lift the packs without damaging

the delicate contents.

Combined, they pick up 9,000 packs every hour,

stacking them in threes, and turning

our happy pairs into families of six ready for the final stage

of packing.

[music playing]

As the croissants travel down the line,

a cellophane sheet is wrapped around them,

and the seam bonded shut using heat.

Another heated blade then slices and separates

each pack while simultaneously melting the cut

edges so they stick together.

In just one hour, 3,000 six packs are filled with 18,000

individual croissants.

At the next station, the top of each bag

is mechanically pinched, and then

a U-shaped section of plastic twist tie

is curled around the neck.

I can't remember seeing one of those in a factory.

We used to have those tires on the bread back in the UK.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): 56 boxes of eight sealed bags

are stacked on pallets and handed

over to the most advanced workers on the payroll.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE: You got robots?

OLIVIER RIPOCHE: Yes.

I love the robots.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The factory's army

of automated helpers are fitted with special sensors

to stop them mowing down the more, well,

organic members of staff.

GREGG WALLACE: Do you ever put yourself in front of them

to see if they stop?

They will stop, but I don't want to try it.

[laughter]

If you'd have told me as a child these would exist,

I wouldn't have believed it.

OLIVIER RIPOCHE: It's incredible.

Yeah.

[music playing]

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): These robots

follow pre-programmed routes using GPS beacons installed

around the factory, collecting pallets loaded with 2,688

croissants from the packing area and taking them all the way

to the distribution center.

[beeping]

GREGG WALLACE: So here we are, right?

Yes.

We are in the dispatch area.

I like your dispatch area.

OLIVIER RIPOCHE: Thank you.

GREGG WALLACE: It's very clean, and it's very modern.

OLIVIER RIPOCHE: Thank you very how.

Many trucks leave here every day?

OLIVIER RIPOCHE: 60.

GREGG WALLACE: Really?

OLIVIER RIPOCHE: 60 truck a day, yes.

GREGG WALLACE: Wow.

How many croissants on a truck?

88,704.

We should go in there, me and you, eat four to give

it a nice, round number, 8,700.

Yes, but some customer will complain that they

missed four pack of croissant.

[laughter]

GREGG WALLACE: What country is your biggest customer?

Who loves the croissants the most?

The French, France.

I don't know why I even asked that question.

[laughter] I feel stupid.

No.

GREGG WALLACE (VOICEOVER): The French

may be the biggest consumers, but over two million

of these flaky pastry treats leave here each week,

destined for every corner of the globe,

including the UK, Europe, the USA, and even South Korea.

I've enjoyed my trip to France, watching the making

of such an iconic pastry.

There's a lot more science behind it than I imagined.

I mean, there's flour, and butter, and sugar

most certainly, but there's also a lot

of pulling, and pushing, and folding,

but I now know what it's all about.

It's about the layers.

[music playing]