While the rest of the world calls this cake of layers of puff pastry and pastry cream a Napoleon, in France, where it is said to have originated, it is simply known as a millefeuille. The word means 'a thousand leaves' and refers to the many layers in the puff pastry.
But the cake's name outside France suggests it had something to do with French emperor and military conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte. In Russia and some Eastern European countries where the cake is made with thin discs of shortcrust pastry rather than puff pastry, it is said to have been brought in by Napoleon and his armies. There is a legend that the cake was the reason for his downfall. Napoleon is said to have loved the dessert so much that he overate on the night before the Battle of Waterloo, causing his final defeat.
This story, however, may leave some curious, as Napoleon supposedly did not care much for food, seeing eating as a mere necessity.
Others have suggested that the cake was originally called 'a napolitain', or 'in Neapolitan style', as French chefs had learned this method of cake production from Naples. Some attribute the acquisition of the Italian technique to Antonin Careme, sometimes called the father of French cuisine. Careme was a chef for Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, a diplomat close to Napoleon, famous for hosting elaborate banquets. When the cake was served at these dinners, it could have been that guests simply misheard the name, and a misunderstanding spread from there. Napoleon's empire didn't last, but it seems that his name has, in the form of a pastry.
