A stone’s throw from the Hotel, the shop dedicated to the creations of Cédric Grolet, the talented pastry chef of the Hotel Meurice and one of the best pastry chefs in the world.
Its inescapable sculpted fruits, magic of art and science, the spectacular Rubik’s cube cake, but also revisited classics, or the seasonal pie, often just out of the oven. Everything is as beautiful to watch as delicious to eat
Her green shops are recognizable at first glance, displaying her chocolate works on display. Patrick Roger is one of the best French chocolatiers but he is also an artist. He uses chocolate as raw material and, with knives and spatulas, he transforms it into giant format works. Some of his casts are even cast in bronze and sold while others are found in the window of his Parisian stores. For Easter or Christmas, his creations are at the same time the joy of chocolate lovers and aesthetes.
But the chocolate team also produces by hand, without the help of any mold, powerful and racy specialties with “best sellers” such as Instinct (rock praline roasted almonds), the Bee (ganache honey with a hint of pure honey) or the Amazon (lime caramel).
In this shop, what we have is more gastronomic pastry than simple pastry. Pierre Hermé is an avant-garde pastry confectioner and a magician with flavors. He revolutionizes the most established traditions and eliminates the excessive or useless decors which clutter cake shops. He uses salt as sugar to bring out other shades of flavors and he constantly reassesses his own work by exploring new territories or by revisiting his own recipes.
This is the home of Kosmiks, revisited traditional pastries presented in easy to carry small jars. Kosmiks contains less fat and sugar than regular pastries and are gelatin free, offering seasonal quintessential tastes and textures created by Christophe Michalak himself. There is a frozen spinoff, the Ice Kreams.
Claus is a dream place, exclusively serving breakfasts with 100% homemade sweet and savoury specials with a twist from Nordic countries, France and the United Kingdom.
There is something miraculous in finding a rhubarb pie with Italian meringue that tastes exactly like childhood. Sébastien Gaudard was trained by the great Pierre Hermé before becoming his successor at Fauchon. He however cultivates his own style, skillfully arranging tradition in his shop, Salon de Thé, which embraces the classic codes of pastry-making.
A tearoom Jugetsudo in Saint-Germain-des-prés, another one in Tokyo, both guardians of the Japanese values and traditions, in such a harmonious décor that it would almost bring you to meditation. The tea ceremony is here like a Zen experience.
A gourmet and original address where the refinement and the delicacy of Japanese flavors are mixed with the expertise of French confectionery. Uncluttered creations, fascinating combinations : macaroons, chocolate cakes or made of powder of green tea, Yuzu or black sesame truffles, jams or fruit cakes… you absolutely have to taste everything.
In a 19th century decor, chocolates and boxes are elegantly arranged on an antique piece of furniture with antique panellings. In the window shop there are exceptional pastries exposed where even, including the most classical ones such as the lemon tart or the frosted cream puff have a reinterpreted taste, and of course the famous macaroons, a series of colours and tastes, which makes it a Mecca for the pastry-making creation.
Are you looking for a little paradise tour ? If you are, go to the gastronomic place of the rue du Bac. Yesteryear cakes reinvented : the Paris-Brest with a heart of fondant praline, the Tarte Tatin (apple upside-down tart) with its lime mascarpone whipped cream, the strong coffee éclair… all that in a dream décor of course !
Settled Rue du Cherche-Midi for eighty years and three generation, the Poilâne bakery never moved. It now supplies the greatest restaurants in the world and the best houses. People are mad about the walnut round loafs, made with figs or whole wheat flour, which allow us to make incredible “tartines”… but also divine apple tarts or their famous sablés (shortbread biscuits cookies).
Working beside Pierre Hermé for three years, Claire Damon realised that her sensitivity could become the guiding principle to produce a cake and an emotion. She went on to work at Ladurée before joining the brigade de cuisine of Le Bristol and of the Plaza Athénée and met David Granger, known to be on an endless quest for the ideal bread. Together they launched this shop mixing the best of their worlds.
