Marry Me, Michele Chaudun

Paris is making me reckless. The other day I jaywalked in front of a police car. Then I went home and ate like seven of Michel Chaudun's amazing chocolates. I'm not sure which was more reckless - after all, jaywalking is like the french national sport (along with striking and cutting in front of others at the bakery). And these chocolates were outstandingly delicious.

Of the few I tried my favourite was that praline rocher. I am never eating a ferrero rocher again. Just the memory of eating them fills my heart with pain when this little praline rocher has been in existence all the time. I also really, really loved the caramel and the caramel mousse chocolates. Oh and the honey ganache thing was amazing. And the pave, which is a little square of truffle filling, is heavenly. I also appreciated how moist and dense the chocolate with the pistachio almond centre was, since they tend to be too dry. Although one of the reasons I wanted to go to Chaudun was to try the peanut chocolate, I have to say the peanut filling underwhelmed me - it was too light. I wanted a really dense nutty paste, but this had some kind of buttery substance mixed with it.

Still, in general the offerings were outstandingly delicious. Expensive, sure, but oh so extremely worth it.

Learning to like Eclaires (what a hardship)

I didn't like eclaires until I had one from Fauchon. Now I spend much of my time thinking up ways to justify purchasing more eclaires. But only from Fauchon. The few eclaires I have had before have had cream in them, which is disgusting and wrong. This chocolate eclaire is like chocolate mousse wrapped in a thin layer of choux pastry with a layer of chocolate and crunchy chocolate rocks on top. It is awe inspiring.

I also tried their chausson aux pommes, a golden flaky pastry with a thick apple puree inside. This was the best apple based pastry I have had in a long time, and the pastry itself was magnificent. I don't know what the bakers at Fauchon are doing to get their pastry so delicious and buttery that it almost has caramel notes to it. Indeed, I don't care how they are doing it. I am 100% on board with it.


I took my eclaire and chausson aux pommes and ate them in the Jardin des Tuileries. Paris at the moment is a strangely lovely sodden grey during the day, which becomes horrible at night. I don't mind it, except on the nights I have to drag myself out of my apartment for taekwondo class, and then I dream fondly of Melbourne.

The Fabled Ispahan

So I finally got around to trying the fabled ispahan - the combination of rose, lychee and raspberries that made Pierre Herme a demi-god. Credit where it's due, of course, and this little individual treat is beautiful and delicious.

I think it's definitely a much more refined dessert than I usually go for. (My personal preference is to faceplant in a bowl of melted chocolate wherever possible.) But the combination is light and sweet and pretty complex, so if you like food for thought, go for it.

Rollet Pradier in Paris, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Snooty Servers

Rollet Pradier sure think a lot of themselves. I don't think I've ever been so snootily served, but it was a very inoffensive snootiness. They weren't rude or mean. I just got the strong impression that all of the people working there truly believe their pastry shop is the highest achievement of western civilisation.

And you know, it's not too far off. First though, I have to say, don't bother with the bread. It's nothing special. But the macarons are fabulous. SO fabulous. I mean these are the third-best macarons in all of paris (Pierre Herme and Gregory Renard come in 1 and 2). I asked the snooty server what she recommended and ended up with a pistachio and poppy macaron. The pistachio was great, but the poppy macaron is completely divine. I would like them to make me a poppy macaron drip and hook me up to it when I get stressed.

I also tried their delicious croquant royale, which is a chocolate and caramel mousse thingy. This was actually the perfect density, not too agressive but not too frothy. It was amazing. Although, as you can see, it didn't look so pretty after I carried it across Paris back to my apartment. (On foot of course - the more I walk, the more poppy macarons I can stuff into my mouth.)

LeNotre in Paris

LeNotre is really my kind of place. Their dedication to chocolate is complete and unswerving. When I trotted up there last week (carrying the butternut of previous note on my back) they had so many different chocolate desserts that I tuned out about halfway through having them explained to me. I was in a sort of pre-emptive chocolate trance. If you've never had that experience I urge you to hang around in more chocolate shops.

This time I went with the nougatine, a chocolate tart that has a really extreme attitude problem. Eating this tart is a serious matter that should not be undertaken by the faint of heart. If you have ever had the thought "Wow, that was too much chocolate," then this is not for you. The tart doesnt have a crust - it only looks like it does. What that actually is is a hard caramel shell with a matte dark chocolate coating. The nougatine sheet is supported by a chocolate truffle, and the actual chocolate tart filling is so dark and intense that it must have been at least 70% cacao.

They also make the best pistachio macaron I have found yet in this city. God bless them for having a store so close to where I live.

Sadaharu Aoki in Paris

There are a lot of folks who say Pierre Herme is the greatest patisser in Paris, and there’s no denying the man is some kind of magical wizard. He certainly makes the best macarons. But my personal pastry chef allegiance is to Sadaharu Aoki, the Japanese-born Parisian creator of the greatest caramel tart known to man. The tart is amazing, a thin layer of butter salted caramel under a thin swirl of chocolate mousse - it is deceptively tiny and difficult to finish. He is also a wizard with matcha, which is probably what puts him at number one for me. His matcha millefeuille and matcha macaron hold special places in my heart.

I decided to branch out from matcha a while ago, and tried this hazelnut praline and chocolate pastry (though as you can see I had to have the matcha macaron too). It was light and crunchy, and the chocolate layer was perfectly dense - exactly what you'd expect from a master. I have never carried anything even slightly disappointing home in a Sadaharu Aoki box. The man is a genius.

Gregory Renard in Paris

I know it must seem like I do nothing but try out different pastry shops every day. But that's not true at all. I do many things every day, mostly toiling in the library over my stupid presentation about shiite factions in the arab world, or the construction of the European Union during the Mitterrand-Kohl years, or preparing for my economics test on the Heckscher-Ohlin Model of international trade. It's just that my university happens to be near a lot of pastry shops. And so does my apartment. And my bus route between the two is similarly well-placed. So I manage to find the time to try out a lot of fabulous places.

These macarons are from Gregory Renard, near the Eiffel Tower on Rue St Dominique. And they are fabulous. I especially recommend the nougat macaron and the chocolat sel macaron. The shop is something in itself - a tiny, cramped, Willy Wonka's factory with chocolates and macarons and sweets spilling out everywhere. These macarons are much smaller than the usual minis, which means you can try out more flavours. And they're very well priced - cheaper than competitors like Lauduree and Gerard Mulot, and infinitely better.

In fact, I feel like I need to admit now that I was very disappointed with Lauduree. I have no desire to go back and experience the tacky decor to the dry, crumbly macarons again. But I can't wait to go back to Gregory Renard.

La Pompadour in Paris

Sometimes the best desserts don't come from the pastry magicians lauded all over france (though I love them dearly). Sometimes all you want is a buttery-crisp apple tarte fine wrapped in butchers paper from your local bakery.

Mine is La Pompadour, on Rue de la Pompe in the 16th. They don't have a grand history or fancy appointments, they sell salads in ugly plastic containers, and they have a Haribo sweets pick and mix in the corner (I've never seen anyone use it.) But they do make all their own breads, pastries and tarts from scratch, allowing them to sport the label "Artisan Boulanger".

And they are responsible for this fantastic apple tart. I am responsible for the bite mark. (See, I contributed in a constructive way to the photograph).

Jeff de Bruges in Paris

Yesterday I decided to try out Jeff de Bruges, a chocolatier with branches all around Paris. I had never heard him mentioned by Clotilde or David so I was wary, despite many online forum members rejoicing in him. In the end, the results were mixed. It started off so well though! My first taste was their fabulous apricot ganache - it ranks up there with the lemon ganache at Patrick Roger. It's really apricotty and smooth.

But then I tried their new tarte tatin apple flavour, and it was blatantly made with a synthetic apple flavouring! So was the pear truffle. They both reminded me of the time back in the day when our IB chemistry class made esthers. They were beyond disappointing. They verged on being outright bad.

Slightly better, but also very uni-dimensional, was the orange chocolate truffle. I tried the "euro" caramel which was a little too sweet for me. I suspect that Jeff de Bruges takes more than the occasional shortcut with their flavours.

Their gianduja was very good, although gianduja is pretty hard to screw up. I also had a dark chocolate caramel that was very woody and dense, and very interesting - I've never had such a dark flavour in a caramel. I finished up with the caramel truffle and the truffle nature, and both were very good, though not as good as La Maison du Chocolat's truffles.

The only real standout was the apricot though. I'd like to go back to get it again, since this shop is much cheaper than the higher tier chocolatiers. But, as usual, nine times out of ten you get what you pay for. The apricot ganache is that lucky one time exception. But definitely give all his other fruit-based flavours a miss.

The best ice cream in Paris

I kept hearing that Berthillon was the best ice cream in Paris, so early on in my stay some friends and I decided to check it out. It certainly shouldn't be missed! In particular the Grand Marnier flavour, the chocolate and the pear were amazing. But the best ice cream in Paris? No, my friends. There is better.

There is a tiny shop about one eighth the size of Berthillon tucked away at 192 Rue de Grenelle. There is nowhere to sit - the store is essentially just a big ice cream counter and a big freezer full of cartons on the side. The whole thing has a very homey, casual feeling about it. Yes, this is the place I am telling you beats out the extravagant, luxurious, elegent Berthillon. This is Martine Lambert.

Martine Lambert makes the most amazing ice cream I have ever tasted. Her pistachio is the best pistachio I've ever had - the nuttiest, creamiet, most intense flavour you could imagine. It beats out the pisachio at Berthillon, Grom, Pozzetto, Amorino (all in Paris), Giolitti Gelato, Gelateria Del Teatro, Gelateria di San Crispino (Rome) and Vestri (Florence). My favourite pisatchio used to be Grom and Vestri's, but Martine Lambert is easily the champion.

Likewise, her caramel ice cream is the best caramel I've ever had - it tastes like putting an actual caramel in your mouth, but icey and creamy. The dark chocolate is apparently a sorbet, and it's really not very sweet, but the caramel is so sweet that these two flavours were made for each other.

Now, other places still have Martine beat on certain other flavours (the gianduja at Pozzetto, for example, is the reigning hazelnut-related champion for me, and Grom's chocolate would probably pip Martine's simply because it's a tad milkier). But Martine definitely whips Berthillon, elegence of the table settings be damned.

It's going into winter, so I'm getting to the point where I just look stupid walking the streets of Paris with an ice cream cone. But for Martine Lambert's icecream, I will do it gladly.

I love Eric Kayser

Everyone loves Eric Kayser and I am happy to count myself among his many fans. His traditions are excellent; just the right balance of chewy, soft mie and crispy (but not too crispy!) crust. I think the seed bread is also good but it's the baguette I keep going back for.

Kayser also makes some fabulous tarts and pastries. His mini-financiers are legendary! But last time I trotted down to his bakery in the 16th I discovered an underappreciated Kayser speciality - his chocolate hazelnut tart.

This tart is incredible. The density is perfect - really, absolutely perfect, which makes a nice change from the more airy, moussy densities favoured by some of the patisseries here. I like serious tarts that pose me a personal challenge when I take them out of the box. This one was a very enjoyable challenge, with a hazelnut praline base and a dark chocolate layer on the top. It was fabulous - and compared to what you'd pay for this kind of thing at other Parisien pastry shops, Kayser is really cheap.

Do you think it would be inappropriate to leave Kayser a love note on his website? I think it might be crossing some kind of baker-consumer relationship line. I better stick to my side of the counter. It's a good side to be on.

Best Croissant Ever (Pierre Herme in Paris)

Pierre Herme makes the best croissants on the face of the earth.

On Sunday morning I went to the boutique at 185 Rue Vaugirard to get some breakfast. Pierre Herme is one of the masters of innovative pastries and interesting flavour combinations. I don't think I'm in the "Pierre is the best pastry chef ever" camp yet, but I definitely give him the best croissant title. It was large, the pastry was perfectly buttery and flakey on the outside and moist on the inside. And since I had made the trip there I couldn't just leave with a croissant, right? Right. Unthinkable.The cannele, which is a sort of dense vanilla and rum cake with a thick, chewy outside, was also outstanding.



I had his caramel tarte for afternoon tea, since I couldn't resist picking it up while I was there. It was excellent, and it introduced me to the idea of a frothy caramel mousse, which took me a bite or two to get my head around. I suffered admirably through this trying experience.


I have to say though out of the three the croissant was the most surprisingly impressive. I still haven't tried the ispahan, the combination of rose, lychee and raspberry which made Pierre Herme so famous. I guess I have to go back next Sunday. Tough life.

Poilane in Paris

It took me a while to get around to trying Poilane's bread, but last week I discovered that they have a bakery pretty close to my apartment, so I didn't have an excuse not to go anymore. I'm such a sucker for the baguette de tradition francaise, and I live close enough to one of Kayser's bakeries to have small incentive to change my habits. But as soon as I walked in the door at Poilane I knew I'd be back.

For one thing, they had a basket of free cookies at the cash register. Free cookies are like magic hugs from the world (or, from bakers, really). These were crispy little golden discs called punitions. A punition is what shortbread comes out of the oven wishing it were. They are incredible.

But the bread is the main event, obviously - you only come to Poilane to get a big hunk of dense brown sourdough. That's probably a good thing since that's pretty much all they're selling (besides more of the cookies). They won't slice a quarter of a loaf, but it's not hard to slice once you get home, and it's cheap - 2.50 euros for about 500 grams, which lasted me five days.

I think it's at its best just with butter, although I did make some fabulous hummus and sauteed zucchini tartines with it last weekend. Damn this bread is so good.