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According to Jim Chevalier, a specialist in French bread history, Christopher August Zang was born in 1807 in the family of a Viennese surgeon. As a young man, Zang served as an artillery officer and studied chemical engineering in the Austrian capital. When he was 28, his military career was cut short by his father's death. After all, why pursue a career of any kind, if you've inherited a fortune from your dad? The inheritance was enough for some time of carefree indulgence and then, all of a sudden, it ran dry. Zang managed a soft landing by marrying into an affluent a rich family, but this experience taught him that once you earn some funds, it's better to invest them rather than blow them all on consumption. And so Zang discovered in himself a knack for entrepreneurship.

As a keen observer, Zang noticed visiting French people raving about Viennese bread. Whenever he was in Paris, he could see for himself that French bread – dark, heavy and sour – was nothing like what was available back in Vienna. There was an obvious niche on the French baking market and Zang resolved to enter this niche with a little capital. In 1837 he moved to Paris, where he and his business partner, Ernest Schwarzer, opened a new bakery at 92, rue de Richelieu. Do you need to know anything about baking bread to run a successful bakery? Not necessarily, as Zang and Schwarzer promptly demonstrated; all you need is to hire good Viennese bakers, trust that they know what they're doing and have the guts to invest in the technological innovations these bakers recommend. In the meantime, the owners focused on marketing; after all, if you're investing in technological novelties, your customers should be made aware of that. And so, Zang's patrons (Schwarzer sold his share to Zang in 1839) soon learned that the dough for Zang's bread is was kneaded not by a sweaty half-naked baker, but by a modern, hygienic machine, and that the loaves are were baked in a special steam oven which give gave the finished product an appetisingly shiny crust. Parisians were quick to learn about the advantages of "Viennese" baked goods, which owed their highly-prised aroma, lightness, whiteness and freshness to a combination of good Hungarian wheat flour and baker's yeast (free from the hoppy bitterness of brewer's yeast).

Zang's establishment was known as ''Boulangerie Viennoise'', or "Viennese Bakery". True to its name, it offered Austrian breadstuffs that had been hitherto unknown in Paris, such as ''[[What has the Battle of Vienna given us?#Croissants|Kipferl]]'', or Viennese crescent rolls (dubbed "''croissants''" by the French), and ''Kaisersemmel'', or kaiser rolls (which Parisians referred to simply as "''petits pains viennois''", or "little Viennese breads"). Zang's commercial success was quickly copied by local bakers, so that by 1840 there had already been a dozen shops offering "Viennese" breads in had sprung up across Paris.

Eight years later a wave of revolutions known as the Springtime of Nations swept across Europe, upsetting the order which had been established in the wake of Napoleonic wars. France became a republic again; , while political reforms in Austria brought about a greater freedom of the press. For Zang this was an occasion to invest in a completely new business. He sold his Parisian the bakery and returned to Vienna, where he became a newspaper publisher. Here, again, he invested in would bet on innovation: ; his paper ''Die Presse'' published short paragraphs arranged in columns, novels in episodes and numerous advertisements which helped maintain a competitive price. Zang stayed in this business for two decades until he sold his publishing house only to move on to banking and mining (the lignite mine that he purchased in Styria bears the name Zangtal to this day).

[[File:Piekarnia Wiedeńska Zanga.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|The Viennese Bakery (''Boulangerie Viennoise'') at 92, rue de Richelieu, in Paris, which circa 1909 still displayed Zang's name in on its shop sign]]Zang był niewątpliwie człowiekiem zamożnym i wpływowymwas without a doubt an affluent and influential man, ale baronem był tylko w sensie metaforycznym, bo żadnych tytułów szlacheckich ani nie odziedziczyłbut he could only be described as a baron in the figurative sense. He never bore any actual titles of nobility, ani nie zdobył za życiawhether by birth or by grant. Czy był dumny ze swojego wkładu w rozwój francuskiego piekarstwaWas he proud of his contribution to the development of French breadmaking? NiespecjalnieNot particularly. Ten epizod w swoim życiu starał się raczej ukryćIn fact, tym bardziejhe actively tried to hide this episode of his professional life, im częściej przeciwnicy biznesowi i polityczni nazywali go zwykłym piekarzemspurred on by his business and political rivals dismissing him as a simple baker. Na przekór tym staraniom jego nazwisko pozostało na tyle silną marką na paryskim rynku pieczywaContrary to his efforts, however, his name had become a strong enough brand on the French bread market that subsequent owners of the bakery at 92, rue de Richelieu, consistently refused to remove it from the shop sign, że kolejni właściciele piekarni przy uleven when offered financial compensation. Richelieu 92 za żadne pieniądze nie chcieli się zgodzić na usunięcie słowa „Zang” z szyldu – jeszcze długo po jego śmierci w Zang's name was still prominently displayed on the bakery's façade long after his death in 1888 r.

Tymczasem pieczywo wiedeńskie we Francji ewoluowałoAll the while, Viennese bread in France kept evolving. Na początku XX w. przyjęło się w języku francuskim słowo „By the early 20th century, the word "''viennoiserie''” " (czytliterally, "Viennese stuff") had been coined in French in the sense of "luxury Viennese-type breads".: „wienłaz-ri”) na oznaczenie „luksusowego pieczywa typu wiedeńskiego”But at the same time, ale równocześnie owa „wiedeńszczyzna” stawała się coraz bardziej francuska niż wiedeńskathese "Viennese" breads were becoming increasingly more French than Austrian. Do wyrobu rzekomo wiedeńskich rogalików zaczęto używać ciasta francuskiego zamiast tradycyjnego ciasta drożdżowegoSupposedly Viennese croissants were now made with French puff pastry rather than traditional yeast dough. To ostatnie przetrwało jednak w bułkach nowego typuThe latter did survive, który upowszechnił się dopiero w latach 20however, in a new kind of bread rolls which only became common in the 1920s. Były to bułki długie i wąskieThese rolls were long and thin, białe i słodkawe white and sweetish (co odpowiadało konsumentomwhich made them attractive to consumers), ale błyskawicznie czerstwiałybut were very quick to go stale, więc trzeba było je kupować nawet so you had to buy them 2–3 razy dziennie times a day (co odpowiadało właścicielom piekarniwhich made them attractive to bakery owners). Od charakterystycznego kształtu nazwano je „pałeczkami”Due to their distinctive baton-line shape, czyli „bagietkami” („''they became knowns as "baguettes''”). I tak narodziło się francuskie pieczywo", jakie znamy dzisiajor "little sticks". W tym czasie ''poolish'' był już And this is how French baking as we Francji w użyciu, zwłaszcza przy wyrobie bagietek właśnieknow it today came to be. Ale było to już długo po śmierci ZangaBy that time, a jeszcze dłużej po tympoolish had been in common use in France, jak sprzedał swoją paryską piekranięespecially for the production of baguettes. A to znaczy, że upowszechnienie tej metody we Francji But this was already long after Zang's death and even longer after he had divested himself of his Parisian bakery. Which means it probably isn't him who should get the credit for introducing poolish to raczej nie jego zasługaFrance.

'''''TL;DR:''''' To prawda, że It's true that Zang założył w Paryżu piekarnięopened in Paris a bakery, w której zatrudnił sprowadzonych z Wiednia piekarzyin which he employed Viennese bakers, ale sam nie był ani piekarzembut he was neither a baker himself nor a baron, ani baronem, ani Polakiem, i to nie to nie on sprowadził do Francji 'nor Polish. And it wasn't him who brought poolish''to France. A jeśli nie onBut if not him, to ktothen who? I czy mogli to być jacyś PolacyAnd is there any connection between poolish and Polish bakers after all?