Panterelli was the Medici chef,
Popelini came later. According to Claude Juillet in Classic
Patisserie: An A-Z Handbook:
"In 1533, when Catherine de Medici
left Florence to marry the Duke of Orleans who was later to become
Henry II, King of France from 1547, she brought with her to France
her entire court, which included her chefs. Seven years later in
1540, her head chef, Panterelli, invented a hot, dried paste with
which he made gateaux. He christened the paste pâte à
Panterelli.
The original recipe changed as the
years passed, and so did the paste's name. It became known as pâte
à Popelini, which then became pâte à Popelin. Popelins were a form
of cake made in the Middle Ages and were made in the shape of a
woman's breasts. A patissier called Avice perfected the paste in
the middle of the eighteenth century and created choux buns. The
pâte à Popelin became known as pâte à choux, since only choux buns
were made from it. [And choux buns were the same shape as small
cabbages. Choux is the French Word for cabbages.] Antoine Carême in
the nineteenth century perfected the recipe, and this is the same
recipe for choux pastry as is used today."
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