[Shanghai 上海] Pierre Marcolini

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Pierre Marcolini

Add: 206, K11 Shopping Mall, 300 Middle Huaihai Road
Tel: 6333 7318
Hours: 10am-10pm
Price: [chocolate] 20-22 RMB/ea [macaron] 250 RMB/ea (pre-packaged boxes available)
Visited: Jun 2016

I passed by a Pierre Marcolini boutique five years ago in Brussels by chance, and, without knowing anything about this brand, bought two boxes of chocolates just because the shop was pretty. Some post hoc research told me that Pierre Marcolini won the title of World Champion of Pastry in 1995, and has shops not only in Brussels, but also in Paris, London, Tokyo, Monaco, Luxembourg etc. In fact, he is kind of a big deal.

五年前在布魯塞爾閒逛時，曾無意間經過一家非常漂亮的巧克力店。擡頭一看，名字是 ”Pierre Marcolini“…嗯，沒聽過，不過樣子似乎很厲害，那就買兩盒試試吧。後來才知道 Pierre Marcolini 是位出名的比利時巧克力大師，1995 年在法國裏昂得到世界甜點冠軍之後，于布魯塞爾開了自己的第一家巧克力店，現在在巴黎、倫敦、東京、摩納哥等地方也都能看到他的作品。

But it wasn’t until moving to Paris that I got to know a bit more about this chocolatier, mostly through a French TV show I used to follow called “Qui Sera Le Prochain Grand Pâtissier” (Who Will be the Next Big Pastry Chef”), in which Pierre Marcolini was one of the four judges.

不過其實對這位巧克力師更多的印象，是來自我後來住巴黎時看的一個叫做 “Qui Sera Le Prochain Grand Pâtissier”（誰會成爲下一個甜點大師）的電視節目。這是個幾乎所有法國甜點師都會看的節目，我當時也不例外的每周追隨，而 Pierre Marcolini 就是四位大有來頭的評審之一。

And just last week, his boutique opened in Shanghai. So far it’s a temporary pop-up on the second floor of K11 shopping mall, though a tea salon is scheduled open in October – something to look forward to. On an unrelated note, even the doorknobs are in the shape of Marcolini’s signature chocolate squares…how cute!

就在上周，他的巧克力店在上海開幕了。地點位于 K11 的二樓，目前只是暫時的零售 pop-up store，十月份會開有座位的 salon de thé，除了有巧克力之外，聽說還會有別的驚喜？不知道是甜點還是冰淇淋還是什麽，總之令人有些期待。（連門把都是 Marcolini 巧克力磚的造型，可愛。）

Et voilà voilà, les chocolats.

店裏主打的自然是巧克力。

Marcolini’s 2015 Easter Doll design, the dots were apparently inspired by Yayoi Kusama.

2015 年的複活節娃娃設計，Marcolini 說原點點的造型是受到草間彌生的啓發。

They do macarons, too.

也有馬卡龍。

Pierre Marcolini himself was in Shanghai for the boutique opening, and I had the opportunity to chat with him for a bit during a press dinner as well as a magazine interview. Needless to say I was a little starstruck to meet him in person, and hopefully acted relatively normal…

新店開幕時 Pierre Marcolini 本人在上海，我也因爲媒體餐會以及雜志采訪的機會跟他當面聊了會兒天。之前只在電視上看過的人物突然出現在眼前實在是個很妙的感覺，而且本人非常親切呢。（大家看的出來我只是表面裝平靜，其實內心非常激動嗎？）

In the gift bags we received, there were all these pretty things.

收到的禮盒裏，有這些東西。

First there’s a box of 14 chocolate bonbons (288 RMB). The most attention-grabbing one was the Coeur Framboise (meaning “raspberry heart”), which consists of raspberry dark chocolate ganache with a hint of lemon, covered in white chocolate. The two other hearts are salted caramel and lime, all very pretty, but truth be told the hearts are too sweet for me. My personal favorites were probably the Earl Grey tea chocolate and the two dark chocolates, as well as Le Câlin (meaning “hug”) on the bottom left, which consists of almond praliné, dentelle de Quimper, and caramel with Tahitian vanilla.

先來看一下裝了14顆巧克力的匠心禮盒（288 RMB）。最吸引人眼球的是紅色的 Coeur Framboise（意爲 “覆盆子心”），白巧克力裏是覆盆子黑巧克力的夾心，並用了一些檸檬皮來提味。另外兩顆心分別是海鹽焦糖和青檸，都很美，不過這幾顆心對我來說來甜了。自己最喜歡的應該是伯爵茶和兩款黑巧克力，還有左下角的 Le Câlin（意爲 “擁抱”），裏面包了杏仁榛果蓉、dentelle de Quimper 脆餅、還有大溪地香草焦糖，是款完美融合豐富層次的巧克力。

What makes Marcolini chocolates special is the fact that he insists on doing the entire bean-to-bar process himself, meaning sourcing and roasting the cacao beans, milling them, kneading the resulting mixture and then heating and cooling the chocolate. This differentiates him from others who use couverture chocolate, which is chocolate that has already been processed by large-scale manufacturers. As Marcolini himself says, the bean-to-bar process is really what gives soul to his chocolates.

Marcolini 巧克力個頭很小，一個大概只有 4－6 克，吃下去不會有膩的感覺，而且風味濃郁、好一陣子都齒頰留香。很難得的是，Marcolini 堅持 bean-to-bar 的過程，也就是說從可可豆的烘烤、磨碎、溶化、到最後制成消費者吃到口裏的成品，所有工序都在自己的可可工廠完成，而非像大部分市面上巧克力品牌直接和大廠商訂購已經處理過的巧克力。這份堅持，特別令人佩服。

Packaging is also done meticulously. Inside the box there are a layer of dipping paper, a layer of oil paper, and a layer of thick buffer board that’s got a curved-in corner for easy removal. Details details details.

包裝也做的頗細心。硬紙盒裏面除了有一層巧克力包裝紙、油紙、還有一層緩衝的紙板，貼心的剪了一個小缺口方便顧客取出。

Truffes Champagne (318 RMB) are milk chocolate ganache flavored with Jean Pierre Lalouelle champagne, covered in a hard chocolate shell. This type of truffle is Belgian style, whereas the French do it simply by rolling ganache in cocoa powder, which I personally prefer for the all-soft texture.

Truffes Champagne 香槟巧克力松露禮盒（318 RMB），包了用 Champagne Jean Pierre Lalouelle 調味的牛奶巧克力夾心，據說每年都爲了這個巧克力松露用掉好幾千瓶香槟。趁機科普一下，這種有巧克力外殼的松露是比利時的風格，不過我個人更喜歡法式松露，做法是直接把 ganache（夾心部份）用可可粉包住，一口吃下去時整個都是柔軟的。個人偏好。

Marcolini also has several varieties of chocolate squares (98 RMB), and the one given to us was sugar-free milk chocolate. Instead of sugar, it uses Maltitol, which apparently is very similar to sugar in terms of flavor, but has only half the calories and has less effects on blood sugar level.

Marcolini有 幾款叫做 “二次方巧克力”（98 RMB）的巧克力磚，給我們品嚐的是沒有添加糖的牛奶巧克力，甜味來自Maltitol 麥芽糖醇。我平時沒有在研究代糖，也是這次才聽說麥芽糖醇的好處：風味和糖幾乎一樣，但卡路里只有一半、不易導致蛀牙、對血糖的影響也較小。

There’s also a box of macarons (7 for 198 RMB), the flavors were pistachio, hazelnut, cinnamon, black currant, coffee, Chuao (chocolate), and Pierre Marcolini (chocolate), though when I visited the boutique myself, I realized that flavors available for sale in Shanghai are actually the following five: passion fruit, vanilla, rose, lemon tea (mmm this one sounds delicious), and raspberry (25 RMB/each).

另外還有一盒7顆的馬卡龍禮盒（198 RMB），口味是開心果、榛果、玉桂、黑加侖、咖啡、初奧（巧克力）以及經典（巧克力），不過後來我自己再去門店的時候才發現目前能在上海買到的只有百香果、香草、玫瑰、檸檬茶（這個聽起來好好吃）、和覆盆子這五種口味（單顆售價 25 RMB）。

I certainly didn’t feel like I had enough after finishing all of the above, so I went back to the boutique to pick up a few things. Being a huge fan of praliné, I picked a box filled with only that (8 for 168 RMB), and amongst pralinés of hazelnut, almond, pistachio, cashew nuts, coffee, cinnamon etc., my favorites were probably hazelnut and cashew nuts, though the coffee one was excellent as well.

以上是媒體收到的禮盒部份，不過吃完了還不過瘾，自己後來又跑去店裏挑了一些東西。由于我個人超級喜歡 praliné榛果蓉，所以選了一盒全部裝的是 praliné 巧克力的禮盒（168 RMB），當然裏面不止有榛果，還有杏仁、腰果、開心果、咖啡、玉桂等不同口味，其中榛果和腰果的我非常中意。

And just to tell you a little bit about how praliné is made…first we roast the nuts (typically almonds and hazelnuts), cook them in a pot with sugar until caramelized, pour on to baking sheet to let cool, and churn with food processor to make a paste. I used to do this quite often in pastry kitchens, and though it’s a long and tedious (not to mention super hot) process, the gloriously nutty aroma and crunchy texture make it all worthwhile.

順便介紹一下 praliné 的做法。首先將烘培過的堅果（最常用的是杏仁和榛果）在鍋子裏和糖翻炒至焦香後放涼，再研磨成爲蓉狀並裹上巧克力。之前在甜點廚房工作時常會自制 praliné，雖然很費功夫（而且過程中要不停的在熱鍋前面翻炒果仁…真的非常熱），不過在品嚐 praliné 時可以感受到濃烈的果仁香氣以及松脆的口感，非常美妙。

I also took home a box of Croustillant Fondant (178 RMB), which is crunchy almond nougatine wrapped in a house-blend of dark chocolate from Ecuador and Ghana, with a hint of salt. Note that they use Marcona almonds from Spain, which is sweeter and more intense in flavor than the typical almond variety.

也帶了一盒 Croustillant Fondant 扁桃仁黑巧克力（178 RMB），香脆的杏仁 nougatine 外面包了一層厄瓜多爾和加納産的黑巧克力，還帶有一點點的鹹味。話說，這裏面用的杏仁是來自西班牙的 Marcona 杏仁，風味濃郁而且特別甜，一直都是甜點師們的最愛。

The chocolates can be purchased by the piece as well, prices are 20-22 RMB.

巧克力也可以單買，一顆價格是20-22 RMB。

Lastly, I tried a box of Palets Fins (16 pieces for 288 RMB), which are only 4mm thick but still enough to envelope fillings like caramel, orange blossom, and mango. At the moment of taking this photo I had already eaten one piece, hence the red heart…(which is not from the box, just FYI).

最後還嚐了Palets Fins（16片／288 RMB），這些巧克力薄片只有 4mm 的厚度，不過裏面還包了焦糖、橙花、芒果等內餡。拍這張照片時有一塊巧克力已經被我吃掉啦，所以用紅心代替，這個本來是不在裏面的哦。

Chocoholics, you know what to do :)

那麽，一起吃巧克力吧 :)

Pierre Marcolini

地址：淮海中路300號K11購物藝術中心206
電話：63337318
營業時間：10am-10pm
價位：巧克力20 RMB／顆、馬卡龍25 RMB／顆（另有禮盒裝）
造訪：2016年6月

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