Last night an outdoor degustation/tasting of cream puffs/choux
The new kiosque, Choux d'Enfer, a collaborative effort by top chefs Alain Ducasse and Christophe Michalak.
The kiosque is at quai Branly and rue de la Jean Rey. A different kind of food truck offering snacks to take to the nearby Eiffel Tower + Champagne. Pastry chef Michalak with food designer Coco Jobard. He's won every pastry prize out there including chef of the year at Relais Dessert still you couldn't meet a nicer guy.
He comes up to us (I'm with French Girl) and introduces himself,
"Hi, I'm Christophe Michalak".
He's the George Clooney of Paris Pastry.
The puffs are baked on the spot at this kiosk.
And filled on the spot too with fresh sweet flavors; vanille, café, chocolat, citron, and caramel.
The savory flavors; poivre noir, curry et piment d'Espelett, cumin and piment d'Espelette are flavored gougeres.
Crunchy on the outside and creamy inside. Not too sweet and trés leger/very delicate so it's easy to eat many more than one puff.
There's caramel dipping sauce of course.
Coco dips a vanilla puff.
The vanille is delicious.
A little background history on pate a choux pastry. Catherine de Medici's Italian pastry chef Pananelli invented the dough in 1540. Called choux because the little puffs were cabbage-shaped. Later Antoine Caréme made changes to the recipe. You're eating pate a choux whenever you bite into an eclair, Paris-Brest, croquembouche, beignets, St. honoré, cheesy gougères or profiterolls to name a few. This pastry can be tricky to make, yet you don't need fancy equipment. It must be airy and light, the inside hollow, perfect to fill with pastry cream or ganache. And perfect to stack up into a tall towering piece montée.
The design of the kiosque is by Patrick Jouin
It reminded me of Corbusier's sculpted building.
In fact the swooping organic shapes come from Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard.
Jouin's designs are everywhere in Paris - from publicity signs to Velib stands. "He's contributed over 46,000 designs to the urban landscape" says Valerie Guillaume, Pompidou curator.
Restaurant designs for Alain Ducasse to boot.
The wind was blowing fiercely as we left the Choux d'Enfer kiosque.
Clutching my gift bag of choux, I thought I might lose them crossing the rainy,windy pont/bridge on the way home.
They are gone now. I polished them off after painting them.
Do stop by on quai Branly and rue de la Jean Rey when you visit the Eiffel Tower. For no other reason than a perfect snack/gouter of deliciousness.
CHOUX d'ENFER is open 7/7 9 am - 8:30 pm
