Every year on October 27, food lovers, trattorias, and bakers celebrate National Breadstick Day. While contemporary restaurant diners love soft, warm garlic-buttered breadsticks, the true ancestor of this table classic is the crisp, slender grissino born in 1679 in the historic royal city of Turin, Piedmont.
1. The 1679 Royal Cure for Duke Vittorio Amedeo II
The grissino was born from a royal health emergency. The young Duke of Savoy, Vittorio Amedeo II, was frail and plagued by severe gastrointestinal illness, unable to digest the moist, undercooked crumb of traditional coarse bread (ghersa). The court physician, Teobaldo Pecchio, instructed master court baker Antonio Brunero to invent a bread consisting entirely of crust.
Brunero rolled high-gluten flour, spring water, and olive oil into pencil-thin cylinders and baked them until completely dehydrated and golden-crisp. The digestive cure worked; the young prince thrived, grew into adulthood, and later became King of Sicily and Sardinia.
2. Napoleon’s "Little Canes of Turin"
Grissini quickly captivated European royalty. King Charles Felix of Sardinia snacked on them while watching opera at Teatro Regio, and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was so passionate about their crisp texture that he established a dedicated courier carriage between Turin and Paris solely to deliver his beloved "les petits bâtons de Turin."
