Virgin pastry is puff pastry in its first-made state — rolled, folded, and rested, but never re-rolled from trimmings. It matters because puff pastry’s hundreds of butter-and-dough layers give an even, dramatic rise only when the layers are intact and undisturbed; pastry re-rolled from offcuts has its layers compressed and jumbled, so it rises unevenly and toughens. Classical pâtisserie therefore reserves virgin pastry for items where the rise is the whole show — vol-au-vents, millefeuille, palmiers — and relegates re-rolled trimmings to bases, lids, and cheese straws where appearance matters less. It is a small discipline that separates professional results from approximate ones.