The exact origin of French Toast is unknown. But it is clear that France wasn’t the country where this breakfast originated. This delicious toast has its earliest reference that dates all the way back to Rome in the 4th century.
French Toast’s Roman Connection
‘French Toast’ is mentioned as Pan Dulicius in a Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius.
And that recipe for French toast isn’t so different from the current one as well. Stale bread, soaked in milk and egg mixture, cooked, and then fried in oil or butter.
Way before the French named it Pain a La Perdu (Lost Bread), it was known as Pain a La Romaine (Roman Bread). This might make Rome the possible place where this toast actually originated.
Joseph French’s ‘French Toast’
Another interesting story about this toast is that it actually originated as a delicious food in America, in the year 1724.
Joseph French was the name of the man who first created it. Being inept at grammar, when Joseph French decided the toast after his name, he named it French Toast instead of French’s Toast, missing the apostrophe in the name. However amusing the story sound, food experts do not believe in its credibility, because this particular toast predates the 18th century.
This yummy toast has various names, such as Spanish toast, German toast and much more. Americans know the toast as French toast simply because the French immigrants popularized it in America.
This much-loved recipe in Europe has no clear origins, but it is a dish that even culinary connoisseurs enjoy to their heart’s content.
Countries such as Spain, Germany, Britain, America, Italy, Brazil, Sri Lanka and even Burma regularly consume French toast! And despite its obscure origins, French toast is as loved today as it was centuries ago!
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