What is A Cronut: The Genius Behind the Pastry Craze and Some Controversies [VIDEO & REPORT]

By Jobs & Hire Staff Reporter | Dec 17, 2013 01:39 PM EST

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You've seen a long line of people early mornings before you go to work in the Big Apple. On your way home, you still see that line of people, but this time it's two blocks long. You've heard people in the street they're going crazy for Cronuts. Cro-what? What is a Cronut?

Not all bread are created equal. A cronut is a fusion of croissant and doughnut created by Dominique Ansel, chef of Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. He made it so special no wonder people would spend hours lining up just to get a piece of the action - and a piece or pieces of the pastry.

What is so special about this bread? It's just bread, right? Well, it isn't. Not when its creator wants it trademarked and bakeries in other states want it imitated and so do bakeries in other countries.

Ansel and his bakery trademarked the name in May 2013, but imitations sprouted like mushroom almost all over the country and some parts of the globe. You could get cronuts from Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis to as far as Auckland, New Zealand and China. They variations differ by name since the mark Cronut has pending trademark approval with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and internationally.

 "It's very much like a doughnut and croissant and yet completely different from both," Ansel, who grew up in Beauvais, France, just north of Paris, told National Geographic in an interview. "You have the crispy sugary outside of a doughnut and the flaky tender layers of a croissant on the inside."

Ansel adds that his dough is a specialized mix developed specifically for the cronut, he told NatGeo.

And because of its secret recipe, limited production, and should we say, exclusivity, the Cronut pastry by Ansel is now being sold in the black market at $100 each. The price, if you go to its store in New York City, is $5.

If it's good enough for a cronut black market to rise, it's no wonder people would line up just to get that wonderful delight.

"We've had people come from Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Berlin, the Philippines, and even Kenya," Ansel told NatGeo.

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