Paris patisserie | Sugared & Spiced

2015/09/262015/09/26

[Paris] Sadaharu Aoki (4)

Sadaharu Aoki

Add: 35 Rue de Vaugirard, 75006 Paris
Tel: +33 1 45 44 48 90
Hours: [Tue-Sat] 11am~7pm [Sun] 10am~6pm (closed on Mon)
Website: www.sadaharuaoki.com
Price: €5~6/patisserie
Tasted: Jul 2015

Two recent tastings from Sadaharu Aoki, one I absolutely loved, the other one not so much. Let’s start with the one I loved, “Symphonie” (€5.40), violet macarons sandwiching earl grey creme brulee, violet mousseline cream, and fresh raspberries. I’m not usually a fan of violet flavors, but the dosage in this cream was light (perfect for me), and combined amazingly with the earl grey flavor and fresh raspberries. Love at first bite and happily savored each mouthful of this.

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Then there was Bamboo (€5.50), Aoki’s famed matcha rendition of the classic opéra, consisting of alternating layers of matcha joconde biscuit, chocolate ganache, and matcha buttercream. I had actually tried this already years ago at Aoki’s Taipei branch – didn’t love it then, don’t like it now…which is quite strange, because I usually enjoy matcha and chocolate flavors. Beautiful visually though.

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2015/06/232015/09/25

[Paris] Des Gâteaux et du Pain (8)

paris

Des Gâteaux et du Pain

Add: 89 rue du Bac , 75007 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 45 48 30 74
Hours: [Mon-Sat] 9am~8pm [Sun] 9am~6pm
Website: www.desgateauxetdupain.com
Price: [pastries] €6~7
Tasted on: Jun 2015

Thanks to Lindsay from Lost In Cheeseland, I had the pleasure of meeting chef Claire Damon from Des Gâteaux et du Pain earlier this week. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I’m a huge fan of her pastry creations, and that Des Gâteaux et du Pain is by far my most-visited pastry shop is Paris. Needless to say, I was more than excited to chat with the mastermind behind all this, and the morning got even better when she packed each of us a box of pastries to take home with. Oh boy.

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Paradisi (€6.50), a tart composed of shortcrust pastry, almond biscuit, vanilla cream, fresh pomelo, and rhubarb compote flavored with timut pepper. Just another example of Claire Damon’s style – clean, fresh, not too sweet, always balanced in terms of flavors and textures. Loved this one.

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2015/06/152015/08/05

[Paris] Mori Yoshida (3)

paris

Mori Yoshida

Add: 65 avenue de Breteuil 75007 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 47 34 29 74
Hours: [Tue-Sun] 10am~7:15pm
Website: moriyoshida.fr
Price: €3.40~5.80/patisserie
Tasted on: Jun 2015

It’s been over two years since Japanese pastry chef Morihide Yoshida opened his shop in Paris, and it seems like he’s doing quite well. The pastry display is as good-looking as ever – his chaussons aux pommes are especially gorgeous – making it really hard not to leave this place with a little more than originally planned. Here are some recent tastings.

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“Érable Caramélisé” (€5.80), a recent addition to Mori Yoshida’s pastry display, is a tart composed of maple syrup caramel cream, maple syrup chocolate mousse, hazelnut biscuit, and hazelnut nougatine. It’s a simple and elegant design perfectly assembled together, though the flavor isn’t an instant hit with me.

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2015/04/202015/08/05

[Paris] Boris Lumé

paris

Boris Lumé

Add: 48 rue caulaincourt, Paris 75018
Tel: 01 46 06 96 71
Hours: [Tue-Sun] 7:30am-8:30pm
Price: [pastries] €3-5
Visited: Apr 2015

A cute boulangerie/patisserie/confiserie in the Montmartre neighborhood. This isn’t my usual hangout, but I made the effort to trek all the way up here one early morning after seeing this video (go to 0:50 min) – this place just looked too charming to pass.

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The chef, Boris Lumé, is French by origin and was trained in Paris before he spent 2 years in Tokyo with his Japanese wife, also a boulanger by profession. He’s been through a few big names like Joël Robuchon, Cyril Lignac, and Frédéric Lalos before setting up his own place here in Montmartre, and his pastries stand somewhere in the middle between haute patisseries (e.g. Pierre Hermé) and your corner boulangerie.

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2015/01/062015/08/05

[Paris] Café Pouchkine Saint-Germain

paris

Café Pouchkine Saint-Germain

Add: 155 Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris 75006
Tel: n/a
Hours: 10am-10pm (open daily)
Website: www.cafe-pouchkine.fr
Price: [pastries] €7.90~10.20 [drinks] €6.10~6.40
Visited: Jan 2015

I’ve never been a fan of Café Pouchkine. Like I wrote in a previous post, the pastries here are real attention grabbers with their dramatic colors, sensual forms, and lavish use of gold leaves, but I personally find the taste to be rather disappointing. Having said that, its third and newest location in Paris, situated on the very posh Boulevard Saint-Germain, is rather attractive as it’s not just a boutique, but a salon de thé as well. Since most pastry shops in Paris don’t offer seats to customers, Café Pouchkine Saint-Germain naturally becomes one of the more interesting options.

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There are about 35 seats in the 80m² cafe. It’s not an especially spacious room, but tables are placed at a comfortable distance from one another for Parisian standard (read: slightly better than elbow to elbow). I visited on a Sunday afternoon, and the space quickly filled up around 4pm.

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One thing I loved about Café Pouchkine Saint Germain was the friendly and attentive service, despite it being a full house during my visit. From taking orders to refilling teapots with hot water, the staff always served with a warm smile.

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The pastry selection is exactly the same as those at Cafe Pouchkine’s Printemps and Marais boutiques.

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2014/12/152015/08/05

[Paris] Acide Macaron

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Acide Macaron

Add: 10 Rue du Bac, Paris 75007
Tel: 01 42 61 60 61
Hours: [Tue-Sun] 11am~8pm
Website: acidemacaron.com
Price: [patisserie] €6~6.50 [macaron] €1.40
Visited on: Nov 2014

I visited Acide Salon de Thé a few months back, and while I enjoyed the pastries and the pretty teaware, it’s too far across town for frequent revisits. Needless to say, I was happy to discover that Jonathan Blot (chef/owner of Acide Macaron, ex-Plaza Athénée and Jules Vernes) opened a boutique on rue du Bac, right near my neighborhood.

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Inside the boutique, it’s a burst of colors. Just look at these rows of macarons…I can’t say I’m a fan of neon-colored food, but they definitely caught my attention.

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2014/08/312015/08/05

[Paris] Un Dimanche à Paris

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Un Dimanche à Paris

Add: 4 Cours du Commerce Saint-André, 75006 Paris
Tel: 01 56 81 18 18
Hours: [Mon] 12~8pm [Tue-Sat] 11am~8pm [Sun] 11am~7pm
Website: www.un-dimanche-a-paris.com
Price: €5~6/pastry
Visited on: Aug 2014

Un Dimanche à Paris remains one of my favorite pastry shops in Paris, largely because I spent 5 very happy months here as an intern right after Ferrandi. It is in this kitchen where I first learned the ways of a professional pâtissier – sure, the pastry program at Ferrandi is wonderful and I wholeheartedly recommend it, but school just can’t prepare you enough for working in a real kitchen. The team at UDAP has almost totally changed since then – only one current pâtissier (salut Alex!) was there during my epoch – but I happen to know the new chef, Nicolas Bacheyre, as we had worked together for a little bit at Fauchon where he was the sous chef. It is indeed a very small circle, this pastry world in Paris, and thanks to that I can go back to snoop around in the kitchen from time to time :)

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It’s barely over half a year since Nicolas started working as the chef pâtissier at UDAP, but he has already came up with plenty of new creations, many with interesting flavor combinations that you can’t find elsewhere. When I saw the picture and description of the latest Chou Bijou, for example, I simply had to go taste it…and of course came back with a bit more than just that.

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Here it is, Le Chou Bijou (€5.40), a jewel-like chou filled with black currant compote and topped with mirabelle tea chantilly cream. Black currant is not new to me as it’s a fruit frequently used in French pastries, but I had never tasted it in combination with the mirabelle tea flavor (and for that matter, I’d never had mirabelle tea before) and it’s really quite a lovely match. Like all the choux and éclairs at UDAP, this one is baked with crunchy bits of cocoa beans for extra flavor and crunch.

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2014/08/222015/08/05

[Paris] Mamie Gâteaux (2)

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Mamie Gâteaux

Add: 66 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006 Paris
Tel: +33 1 42 22 32 15
Hours: [Tue-Sat] 11:30am~6pm
Website: www.mamie-gateaux.com
Price: [drinks] €2~5 [sweets] €4.5~5.5 [lunch] €10~15
Tasted on: Aug 2014

This cozy tea room near Le Bon Marché is now bigger and brighter than its former self after renovation, but it remains charming with the usual homely pastries and friendly waitstaff. A lovely spot to come back to for lunch and afternoon tea.

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2014/06/152015/08/05

[Paris] Gâteaux Thoumieux (2)

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Gâteaux Thoumieux

Add: 58 rue Saint Dominique, 75007 Paris
Tel: +33 1 45 51 12 12
Hours: [Mon-Sat] 10am~8pm [Sun] 8:30am~5pm (closed on Tue)
Website: www.gateauxthoumieux.com
Price: €4~6/pastry
Visited on: Jun 2014

I went to Gâteaux Thoumieux when it first opened in November 2013, and wasn’t too impressed by what I tasted. It wasn’t until more than 6 months later that I went back to this pastry shop, and this time, I was pleasantly surprised by the changes that have taken place here. The prices are higher, but the pastry display was also looking a lot more attractive – seems like Jean-François Piège and his pastry chef Ludovic Chaussard have been coming up with some lovely ideas lately.

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As I so rarely go to Gâteaux Thoumieux, it was very tempting to get a little bit of everything, but I managed to limit myself to just four pastries on this visit…

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I started with Chou Chou Coco Passion (€4), a large chou filled with coconut cream, enveloping a mini chou filled with passion fruit compote. Lovely flavor combination, and a good balance between the sweet and the acidic.

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2014/04/222015/08/05

[Paris] Pierre Hermé – Fetish Satine

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Pierre Hermé

Add: 72 rue Bonaparte 75006 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 43 54 47 77
Hours: 10am~7pm (7:30pm on Thu-Fri, 8pm on Sat)
Website: www.pierreherme.com
Price: €4.50~7.30/individual dessert
Visited on: Apr 2014

After going crazy during Pierre Hermé’s Fetish Ispahan, I calmed down a bit in my PH consumption for a few months. What lured me back recently was Fetish Satine, a collection of pastries featuring the trio of cream cheese, orange, and passion fruit. Voilà voilà. If this flavor combination sounds heavenly to you, read on.

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And of course, Easter eggs in the boutique.

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I was also very tempted to try Envie when I spotted it in the window display. It’s a pastry composed of tender almond biscuit, blackcurrant compote, and vanilla violet mascarpone cream – definitely marking this for next time.

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Also noticed a series of packaging design by Kenya Hara (Japanese graphic designer and art director for MUJI) for Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan. I’ve always been a fan of MUJI and have read a few books by Kenya Hara on his design philosophy (which I quite appreciate), but to be honest I don’t think I’d buy this. In case this is of interest, you can find out more about this here.

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Tag: Paris patisserie

[Paris] Sadaharu Aoki (4)

[Paris] Des Gâteaux et du Pain (8)

[Paris] Mori Yoshida (3)

[Paris] Boris Lumé

[Paris] Café Pouchkine Saint-Germain

[Paris] Acide Macaron

[Paris] Un Dimanche à Paris

[Paris] Mamie Gâteaux (2)

[Paris] Gâteaux Thoumieux (2)

[Paris] Pierre Hermé – Fetish Satine

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