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Did You Know? FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JUNE 2018 11 By Micki Rosen DID YOU KNOW THAT JUNE 22 IS CHOCOLATE ECLAIR DAY? Éclair means "flash of lightning" and describes the speed at which these delicacies will disappear if left unguarded. They are said to have first been invented by the French chef Antonin Careme, a man with a tragic history that led to a grand creation in the early 19th century. He was abandoned by his parents in the tumultuous days of the French Revolution and found work as a kitchen boy to keep himself housed and fed. He later worked as an apprentice to a famous patissier named Sylvain Bailly. He blossomed into an amazingly talented chef and invented the Éclair. Yum. DID YOU KNOW THAT JUNE 2 IS ROCKY ROAD DAY? The Rocky Road dessert was first created in Australia in 1853. Unscrupulous businessmen took confectionery items that had been spoiled by their journey from Europe and mixed them with local nuts as well as low quality chocolate. The name referred to the rocky road that travelers used in order to access the gold fields. Rocky Road ice cream was invented by William Dreyer in Oakland in 1929. He created an ice cream that included the same ingredients as the original dessert – chocolate, marshmallows and nuts – as a means to lift the spirits of those affected by the stock market crash. DID YOU KNOW THAT JUNE 4 IS COGNAC DAY? Cognac begins with a white wine produced in one of six designated growing regions. If the wine doesn't come from one of these regions, it's not considered a real Cognac. A further distinction is that a true Cognac must be produced from 90 percent Ugni Blanc grapes. The process starts with the grapes being pressed and left to ferment for three weeks in the wild yeasts that grow naturally in those regions, without the addition of sugar of sulfur. This wine is then distilled in alembic stills and placed into Limousin oak casks for two years where it goes from being nearly 70 percent alcohol to 40 percent alcohol. There are multiple grades of Cognac – Cognac Day is a good day to start exploring them! DID YOU KNOW THAT JUNE 20 IS AMERICAN EAGLE DAY? The use of the American Eagle to represent the country has a turbulent history. There were several seals established for the United States in 1776, but none of them were accepted by Congress. Eventually, the job of designing the seal was given to Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, who took all the best elements of the presented designs and improved on them by adding this majestic bird to the seal. The bird soon became one of the most recognizable icons of the American culture. DID YOU KNOW THAT JUNE 23 IS TYPEWRITER DAY? Typewriters were originally conceived of in 1575 by an Italian printmaker, but they never saw production. There were patents in 1714 in Britain for something that seemed to be a typewriter, but that device was also not produced. Another example was designed in 1802 by Agostino Fantoni to help his blind sister, but it wasn't until 1895 that a model went into actual production with the Ford Typewriter. After that, typewriters started finding their way into private homes and businesses. Even though we now use keyboards, some of the most important classics of the last 100 years have been produced on a typewriter, including those by Stephen King and Ernest Hemingway.

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