Paris is spoilt for choice when it comes to cakes and pastry shops
LIKE many an enduring myth, there isn’t a single crumb of truth in the story that French queen Marie Antoinette told the peasants to eat cake — or brioche, as the purists insist — when they said they didn’t have bread.
In fact, the much-maligned monarch was far more likely to have given the starving masses food had she been allowed, such was her generous nature, says her biographer Antonia Fraser.
The story of French cake itself, however, is much more clear-cut. You can believe the hype: France’s world-class reputation is well-deserved — and thriving. A new generation of gifted pastry chefs is taking it to a new level with an emphasis on lightness of touch, fun, and innovation.
Here are 10 of our favourite places to buy cake in the French capital, Paris. If you visit only one street, make it the rue de Bac on the Left Bank — it is a veritable cake walk with several excellent pastry shops.
Pierre Hermé, nicknamed the Picasso of Pastry, has gained a worldwide recognition as the man who revolutionised the pastry world, introducing new tastes, textures, and flavours (an olive oil and mandarin macaroon, anyone?)
He considers the creation of pastries an Art with a capital A. Just about everything is worth trying, but then Art like this doesn’t come cheap.
A single pastry is more than €7 and one creation – called, suitably enough, the cherry on the cake – is €98 worth of Dacquoise biscuit, hazelnut, chocolate ganache, and whipped cream. You can even buy it online but, alas, only in France.
72 rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris and several other locations
There are people who say the price of a plane ticket to Paris is worth it just to visit this bakery on the Left Bank. And certainly La Pâtisserie des Rêves (the Pastry Shop of your Dreams) is unlike any bakery you might have seen. A selection of a few cakes are kept, like precious gems, under glass domes which are lifted by pulleys. Once you make your choice, you get a receipt and go to a counter to claim your booty. A great way to savour cake.
Try the Paris-Brest. Chef Philippe Conticini is famous for his take on the French classic, a round choux pastry filled with hazelnut cream that was created to commemorate the Paris-Brest bicycle race.
93 rue du Bac, 75007 Paris and 111 rue de Longchamp, 75016 Paris
There’s a wicked sense of fun at Gastel, the bakery and tearoom that has come up with the G-spot collection. “It’s designed to make you blush,” chef Laurant Guedj tells Weekend, explaining that playfulness is a new ingredient in the once-fusty world of patisseries.
The G-spot collection comes with provocative names like Geisha, Glamour, and Gigolo and looks more like an ice cream than a cake, but there is nothing gimmicky about the delicate, subtle flavours of each one (price €3.90).
To see that Guedj and his associate Olivier Stehly have talent, take a look at the latter’s breath-taking take on a yule log, Christmas tales.
102 rue Lafayette, 75010 Paris
Chef Christophe Michalak set out to demystify pastry and he hopes the results will leave “foodies thunder-struck with happiness”, as he puts it. Big words, but then his takeaway — a radical concept in the pastry world — is stocked with confections that are as delicious as they are inventive.
The Kosmik (€6.50), which changes daily, is a favourite. It comes in a little glass pot with a spoon so that you can sneak a mouthful of its contents, by turns crunchy and creamy, any time, any place, anywhere. If you want to learn how he does it, Michalak also runs master classes.
60 rue du Faubourg Poissonniere, 75010 Paris.
The name itself includes a pun that roughly translates as a flash of genius. And it’s true; there is a touch of genius in taking a French classic — the éclair — giving it an ultra-modern makeover, and then selling nothing else with the exception of truffles.
Chef Christophe Adam is one of a new generation of chefs that is cooking up a storm.
He has five outlets in Paris and two in Japan. If you are anywhere near any of them, try one of his Christmas éclairs: we’re putting the Licence to Eat Christmas box of ten (€85) on our lists.
14 rue Pavée, 75004 Paris and other locations.
It’s worth visiting chef Cyril Lignac’s newest patisserie in the swish 16th arrondissement, or quarter, just to appreciate the décor — the traditional wooden exterior, the ceiling fresco, and the ivory tiles are stunning and belie the ultra-modern take on some traditional favourites.
The lemon tart is an event with its hazelnut shortbread, waver-thin white chocolate top, and cream-and-lemon emulsion. You know you’re really having your cake and eating it when you start using words like emulsion and you don’t mean something from the Dulux colour chart.
A single lemon tart is €5.50, €35 for a cake for six. Tempting.
2 rue de Chaillot, 75016 Paris
You don’t have to go all the way to Paris to enjoy Ladurée but there is something special about seeing the original in rue Royale, which first opened its doors in 1862.
Ladurée is world-famous for its double-decker macaroons — 15,000 are sold daily — but it’s quite something to enjoy one here.
Try one of their other specialities too: The religieuse is said to be called that because it looks like a nun’s habit, but others claim it’s because eating one is a spiritual experience. We’re more inclined to think it’s sinful, but are happy to indulge anyway. Address: 16 rue Royale, and several other locations.
It’s a bold step to use the word acid when talking about cake, but chef Jonathan Blot was determined to shake up the establishment and invent flavours, getting the mix between sweet and acidic just right.
You’ll find fantastic macaroons here with unexpected flavour combinations (poppy and coconut, for instance) but his bestsellers are the cheesecake and choux classic Paris-Brest.
rue de Bac, 75007 Paris
A shop devoted entirely to tiramisu? You might think you know what a tiramisu tastes like, but you haven’t really seen how the Italian classic can be reimagined – if you’re feeling adventurous try the basil, iced tea, and lemon curd tiramisu (€5). A revelation.
Tiramisu literally means pick-me-up. This tiramisu bar — they call it a bar — will do that and more.
10 rue Bayen, 75017 Paris
Claire Damon is one of a growing number of female pastry chefs and her shop is something of a celebration of the senses.
With associate David Granger, she has put a huge emphasis on the total experience of buying pastries and bread – the background music is hand-picked and mirrors on every wall show her creations in kaleidoscope.
As for the cake itself, it’s all about the fruit. She celebrates it, magnifies it and exposes it, as she says herself. Try the Mont Blanc (€6.20), with its shortbread base, compote of blackcurrants, candied chestnut, meringue and whipped cream. Nom. Address: 63 Boulevard Pasteur, 75015 Paris and 89 rue de Bac, 75007
It’s a story of love, passion and pastry — but not necessarily in that order:
Cork pastry chef (and MasterChef Ireland finalist) Christine O’Sullivan is perched at the copper counter of Chez Prune café in one of the coolest districts in Paris talking about her plans to open her own pastry outlet in a city famous for its confectionery.
She and partner Chris Wilson, also a pastry chef, met in the kitchen of Rustic Stone restaurant in Dublin and now the couple are making a name for themselves as suppliers of excellent cakes and pastries.
It’s been a life-changing rollercoaster since Christine took a year out from her architecture studies in 2011 and decided to give MasterChef a whirl.
She loved it so much that she asked Michelin-starred chef Dylan McGrath for a job.
And no, she didn’t find him in the least bit scary. “He is a really nice man. And if he sees someone cooking with passion and heart, he roots for you,” she says.
Christine’s passion for food is understandable. She grew up around good food and wine in Kinsale, where her parents Ann and Christy O’Sullivan once ran a restaurant called Bawnleigh Country House.
After spending two years working in kitchens in Dublin, she was drawn to the gastronomic hub that is Paris and secured a place on an intensive pastry course in the city’s Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts.
Just two years later, she and her partner Chris are working through the tangle of infamous French bureaucracy and plan on opening their own pastry outlet in the coming months.Already, their wholesale company, Broken Biscuits, supplies Parisian cafés, restaurants, and caters for private events and parties.
The couple lives near the canal St Martin in Paris’s 10th arrondissement, an area that was hipster even before the term was invented, and they know many of the people who run the cafés and eateries that have popped up here over the last few years.
“There’s a demand for something different,” says Christine, explaining that she and Chris are not trying to produce “ornate, jewellery-box” cakes.
“We want to make memorable cakes that have real flavour,” she says, listing a mouth-watering range of recipes: Lime meringue tart; whiskey, chocolate and orange cake; apple tart — “but with real vanilla, great apples, and amazing pastry”; a good soda bread; and a great treacle bread.
One of the cafés that Christine has supplied, the nearby Ten Belles, is heaving on a Sunday afternoon.
It does fantastic speciality coffee and great homemade cakes (including scones and very fancy sausage rolls).
It’s a model that Christine and Chris hope to emulate. They know people who have gone into business with a counter, a till, and a passion for what they do.
They are hoping to do the same. They will start with a wholesale outlet with a small retail space and front-of-house speciality coffee and see how it takes.
To judge from the reaction to Broken Biscuits in Paris so far, make sure you get there early.
T
by Barry Coughlan
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