If the U.S. has chicken fried steak and Japan has tonkatsu, Austria has the schnitzel. There are different names for these breaded and fried cutlets – wiener schnitzel is made with veal, wiener schnitzel vom schwein is pork, puten schnitzel is turkey, and huhner schnitzel is chicken – but it’s especially important to distinguish wiener schnitzel from the rest.

While fried cutlets made from just about any meat can be called generic "schnitzel," only schnitzel made from veal can legally be called wiener schnitzel. The moniker "wiener" (meaning "Viennese") was added to the name because Austrians wanted to credit themselves for the dish, and not have it confused with similar dishes.

Wiener schnitzel originated in the 19th century, when an Austrian general ate a veal cutlet in Italy and loved it so much, he had his chefs create their own version when he returned home to Vienna. The wiener schnitzel is such an important dish in Austria that the country celebrates a national holiday for the fried veal cutlets.