Impérial chocolat au Château de Fontainebleau

 

Chocolate-covered madeleines are so hard to paint 🎨 

Yesterday I went to opening day of Imperial Chocolat 🍫 

Relais Desserts - Les Buches de Noel 2014

Yesterday was the grand degustation of the 2014 Christmas büche de Noël cakes - a tasting of the 26 winners of the Relais Desserts competition of Pastry chefs worldwide.

It was held at the newly opened Peninsula Hotel on 19, Avenue Kléber 75008

Very grand setting indeed.

There were lots of traditional logs (büche) looking almost trompe l'eoil(fool the eye). A log by Spanish chef Miguel Moreno composed of praline mousseline, vanilla and coulis of apricot.

Do not put these very lifelike intensely chocolatey cakes in your fireplace svp! This luscious log is by Parisian Laurent Duchene.

'Burying the hatchet' as we know it is not a French custom. Quite the opposite. The French adore their hatchets at Xmas time, preferably in gold leaf and edible. This stunner is by Laurent Le Daniel - Rennes. The faux wood rings is a winner no? Inside milk chocolate and creme de pamplemousse!? Plus crunchy noisettes(hazelnuts).

I loved the Autumnal look of this büche by Marc Ducobu of Waterloo. A büche is classically a roulade or rolled genoise cake with flavored fillings. This one has forest fruits with a touch of violette and creme de marron confit.

A very lush and elaborate affair by chef Lionel Raux of Bayonne. Speculoos crust, vanilla cream, hazelnuts and a heart of caramel sauce. We decided we must taste this one.

How it works. The cakes on display are left untouched. You tell the waiter your choices and he goes into the kitchen for cut tastes. Some clever chefs made individual versions of their cakes like Raux did here. 

Unfortunately I forgot my special Kyocera pastry knife. What was I thinking? A girl should never leave home without her pastry knife! Enfin a mess cutaway view. Yes that is a cream puff or choux sitting on top filled with more hazelnut cream. I brought Lindsey Tramuta of Lost in Cheeseland to the tasting. She picked this one out. 

.Our second plate of tastes.

Here's the witty giant size version of the little bear made of ice cream on the plate. Created by Relais Desserts President Frederic Cassel of Fontainebleau. Inside: vanilla ice cream, hazelnut crumble, caramelized pecans and salted caramel. YUM

Back in the kitchen Cassel's top pastry chef Norbert takes me into the Aladdin's cave where the cakes are chilling. I would have happily stayed there to study the cakes further...

Now that I've studied the guide booklet they gave us I could use a second visit to sample some cakes I overlooked.

Better yet maybe at next year's event I can help out in the kitchen collecting crumbs?

The inside cutaways look very different from the outside büche de Noël. They are constructed like architecture, layer by layer. Flavor on top of flavor. Contrasting texture upon texture.

Another plate of samples (not ours).

Parisian Chocolatier Jean-Paul Hévin created a Christmas ball-shaped dessert not the traditional log. You lift off the dark chocolate dome to find a giant macaron filled with dark chocolate ganache flavored with red wine. There's a slice on the plate above.

I fell for this Yuzu and apple combination by Joël Baud of Besançon - very light and delicate. I'm partial to fruity desserts admittedly. 

Another beauty. Love the color and playfulness of the design. By Lyonnaise chef Sebastian Bouillet. Inside pain d'epice, dark chocolate and apricots Bergeron. I'm drooling as I type...

Granny Smith apple, plus vanilla and almond by Alban Guilmet of Caen. I've only shown you 9 of the 26 buches. And to think I only tasted 6 or 7. This is tragic. I need a second go-round surely no?

Of course the chefs were tasting too along with press and bloggers.

Here's Lindsey chatting with Pierre Hermé who won an award for his gorgeous Fetish Ispahan book this year.

Do download the Free Relais Desserts app. There could be a member pastry chef around the corner you didn't know about. This will give you the scoop.

The Relais publishes a handsome quarterly journal in French, English and Spanish and it's free in members pastry shops. This issue was focused on what else? On the delights of French regional candies. That's why you should get the latest Paris Sketch Letter sent to you to keep on top of all things French.

The annual tasting ends with an awards ceremony. Pastry chef of Restaurant Lassere Claire Heiztler won as best chef this year. Take a look at last year's buche de Noel event here. Only in Paris do you get to eat Christmas cake TWO times a year. Isn't La Rentrée a wonderful thing! A triumphant day all around.
Bravo French pastry chefs!

June Paris Strawberry Letter with a little help from my friends

Nothing says Spring or June like strawberries/fraise.

The wearing of strawberry anything in Paris is de rigueur as a rite of Printemps/Spring.

I had big plans to attend the annual June fete de fraise in Plougastel, Brittany.

I was going to visit the musee de la fraise too

And pay homage to dear Amedee-Francois Frezier, who brought back 6 species of strawberries/fraises/Fragaria Chiloensis to France from Chili (now grown to 600 species).

When a New York friend came to town in early May. Natch I took her to the patisserie to taste a Fraisier. What better way to celebrate Spring and her visit.

Naturally I gave her the bag to carry - a big honor in my mind.

Did I know she would swing it like "a tisket, a tasket, a red and yellow basket". I was ready to throttle her 😱

When she said she Loved my preparatory sketches for the June letter on fraises, I was ready to hug her. All was forgiven and the cake tasted Fab anyway.

The June Paris letter has been through so many renditions it's silly.

Monsieur Frézier was an essential ingredient.

But where to put him and how to make him look less grumpy.

Graphic designer Sarah Vasseghi saved the day on Sunday when she said, "You need scale! Everything is the same size". YES.

 When I fell and broke my leg I was on way out the door to get Fraisier cake samples. No wonder I wasn't paying attention. Frederic Cassel's Fraisier saved the day and became my model. I've yet to find the true origins of the Fraisier gateau but it's certainly the French version of our strawberry shortcake with a perhaps lighter and more fanciful touch. The berries are sandwiched between 2 thin layers of Genoise cake with a base of pate d'almond, a topping of here a very light guimauve/marshmallow and filled in with creme moussiline. More fresh fruit on top. Yum. 

I had so many prep sheets of sketches, French Girl suggested we cut them up and paint a strawberry tied with a red ribbon as a little favor to go inside the June Paris letters.

I thought she was nuts

But in no time French Girl was punching holes and tying ribbons as she lined them up like strawberry 🍓 soldiers.

While I painted up a storm.

Speaking of storms, we had torrential rains here and even hail but I haven't gotten a toe wet. Fr Girl bought tons of ribbon, Lois found strawberry perfume to spritz all the envelopes before they ship out,  La Poste and Wendy brought the strawberries 🍓 for the shot. I couldn't have done it without you dear friends.  That's the story of the June Paris letter.
Big Merci all !

I’m Carol Gillott, an artist living in Paris. Every month I send out beautifully illustrated letters that capture the true Parisian experience. Sign up to receive these whimsical treasures in your mail.

Thanks for reading PB ❤️

☕️ If you’d like to support my work, you can buy me a KO-FI here  ☕️  ❤️ Thank you so much! 🍓 🍓 🍓