Does anyone know the origin of the name for the puffy rolls known as kaiser rolls? I was once told it was named after the “puffy” ego of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. A friend told me the roll is shaped like a crown, hence “kaiser” named after one of the kaisers of Germany but not necessarily Wilhelm.
I can tell you that in Austria they are known as semmeln (spelling?) they are THE default bread in resterants. It is possible that the American name for them refers to Hungarian/Austrian Hauptsberg line of Kaisers rather than the German ones. Kaiser is just German for “Emperor”, not unique to Germany.
I roomed for a couple days in a bakery in the Austrian Alps (Mayerhoffen im Zillertal) and it seemed like about 2/3 to 3/4 of the capacity was devoted to semmeln production.
Here’s some interesting info in this link. I can’t attest to its accuracy, though. A fun read at any rate.