Macaron Tragedies

Sometimes bad stuff happens to good people... You go to La Maison du Chocolat for a lovely box of macarons.  You carry them carefully out of the store, making sure nothing touches them. You place them under your seat on the subway, so no one steps on them. You run off the train at your stop and forget to grab your bag of macarons! Quelle tragedie non? In Paris you know better than to think these macs will get home safely in this little cello bag. You insist on a boite/box bien sur svp.In New York, a ready pre-packed box is not a good idea. You always want to pick out your macarons fraiche. How long they've been sleeping in that box? An Older French Girl tells you excitedly there is a new "French" patisserie on 30 East 68th st., and she thinks they may have macarons! YIKES Naturally you dash over camera in hand.NO MACARONS!"We might have them in a few weeks," they say. While hanging your exhibit at James Beard House Friday, you shoot the other guy's paintings and forget to shoot your own. You do not forget to shoot the trays of lemon macarons waiting nearby for the evenings' dinner. A chef comes in and asks if he can 'borrow' your ruler.You ask,

"Are you the pastry chef?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
Only a pastry chef asks for a ruler. He lets you taste a macaron or two.
At the Beard Awards Monday night, there is not a single macaron to be seen. Pretty tragique if you ask me.

While browsing in Barnes & Nobles you start to hyperventilate. A NEW macaron cookbook? Not that you bake.

No such luck. Just plain old macaron-i. c'est la vie

You do go back to La Maison for another box of macarons.You're going to shoot them this week-end. All for researche . Have YOU had any macaron tragedies?
HAVE A HAPPY MOM'S DAY!

Mac Attack!

I had a Mac Attack last night and raided the refrigerator. Isn't it thoughtful of La Maison du Chocolat to wrap each Parisien macaron individually?I had a Mac Attack on Saturday when I read in the NY Metro that St. Regis Adour chef, Sandro Micheli said, regarding the making of macarons,
"What I absolutely hate is when people put butter cream in between. There is NO butter cream in macaron!
Butter cream is for cupcakes!”
Wha'?
I went to Google to check about buttercream in macarons.
Next I called Adour to see if I could come buy some of his buttercream-FREE macarons. You can only order them 24 hours in advance (sight unseen I might add!).
Micheli's recipe at the Metro is for raspberry macarons which require a filling of raspberry jam n'est pas? There are not many macarons with a jam filling. Check out Pierre Herme's list of saveurs.
How REAL ganache macaron filling is made here.
 I put on my coat and went to La Maison du Chocolate, where you can see Macs, feel Macs (after you buy them natch) taste Macs etc. The shells are flown in from Paris every week, so they're 50% 2/3rds Parisien I guess. On the question of NO buttercream in macarons, Bear quietly reminded me of the massive hunks at The Ritz macaron class and he wasn't talking about The Ritz Bears. Can you imagine caramel au beurre sale macarons made with no butter? All these Parisiens are waiting outside patisserie Pierre Herme on Jour Du Macarons For butter-free macarons right?
It reminds me of the lines from When Harry Met Sally.
Harry: There are 2 kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.
Sally: Which one am I?
Harry: You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance.
Sally: I don't see that.
Harry: You don't see that?
Waiter, I'll begin with a house salad, but I don't want the regular dressing. I'll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side.
And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side. "On the side" is a very big thing for you.
Buttercream on the side svp.
By the way wildly generous Pierre Herme sent out a Thank You to Us!? for attending his amazing macaron marathon

Meanwhile David Lebovitz on Saturday demonstrated the macaron recipe from I Love Macarons. I had Mac Attack.

I bought the original Japanese version (not that I read Japanese).

Master macaron-chef, Pierre Herme brought out his macaron cookbook in Japanese? No English edition yet.

No wonder I had Mac Attacks all weekend...

Mactweets is having a Mac Attack on their site?

The Mac Rage is contagious.

Meanwhile Bear is singing to himself

an ode to Macarons with deepest apologies to The Who.

See Macs
Feel Macs
Touch Macs
Eat Macs
See Macs
Feel Macs
Touch Macs
Eat Macs
Listening to you, I get the Mac music
Gazing at you, I get the Mac heat
Following you, I climb the Mac mountain
I get excitement at your Mac FEET!
Right behind you, I see the millions of Macs
On you, I see the Mac glory
From you, I get Mac opinion
From you, I get the Mac story

VRBO.com

My flight was at 4:30 on Tuesday, so I ran out for a last visit to this excellent patisserie David Lebovitz showed me two years ago and a stone's throw from my apartment... FERME! As were many other shops on Veterans Day, November 11th.
C'est la vie. A last shot of my metro stop, Bastille... My view on the quiet courtyard in Charlotte's lovely apartment. I found this with your much appreciated assistance... Here is the link if you're interested: http://www.vrbo.com/43745The salon has wood beamed ceilings... French doors everywhere. Ma chambre/bedroom. Time to depart.Off to CDG I passed through Metro station Chatelet. Of course the Russian singers, Les Musiciens de Lviv, were playing their hearts out. Of course I bawled as usual. These metro singers represent Paris for me more than any other icon like. It makes no sense. They always play heart-breaking music. This time, loaded with too many bags and running to RER B, I stopped and bought their CD. Now to unpack. Some essentials not to leave home without: EarPlanes, tapemeasure, Oddibile 250, found in any Paris pharmacy (charcoal tablets for times when you've eaten too many escargot). Did I mention my studio was repainted while I was away by my neighbor? Chaos awaits... And a chance for a clean start too. It will take a huge effort to mess this up.

Salon du Chocolat Cure...

La Maison du Chocolat petit fours, 12" x 15" Watercolor

I went to hear Mireille Guiliano last night chat about her new book, but Paris-induced jet lag hit me hard. I woke up midway in Barnes & Noble's to hear her say "I cut everything I eat in 1/2". I got home ready to hit the sack tout suite with my clothes on at 8PM, but first I thought I'd try "1/2" a chocolate "Mireille style".

Chocolate's Theobromine isn't just a cure for heart disease and heart ache or persistent coughs or whatever they're claiming this second...
It cures Jet Lag too!? YAY!

I learned last May in Paris, when I was painting a ton of chocolate boxes, how to remove the inner contents without disturbing the ribbon on top. This is not a good skill to acquire! But last night I found out the inner contents of a La Maison chocolate box will help delay bedtime till 11PM!

I had to buy the box for my New York Chocolate Show display next week, so resisting the contents was not easy.

The true test will be if I can eat just 1/2 of one chocolate every night to overcome the ever present Jet Lag. I'll keep you posted.. These gorgeous displays are from the Paris Salon du Chocolat - all La Maison du Chocolat. Their new holiday "Cubism" collection colors are red and brown! All the shapes are square, circles, cubes - again Chocolate geometry!

Librairie Chantelivre on #13, rue de Sevres 75006, is just down the street from La Maison du Chocolat shop. Their window was a beautiful homage to La Maison during the show. The French are rightly mad for their chocolatiers - they are the best in the world!

Here's another chocolate cure from Bernard Cassière at the show. I was invited to have a choco mask done..hmmm. I passed and just took the picture below...

Mireille has a How French Are You test.
I clocked in at You're Almost French! (37-47 points)Here's a sample question:
1. Your idea of the ultimate chocolate fix is?
a. A chocolate Entenmann's donut.
b. A Hershey bar.
c. Godiva truffles.d. 1 or 2 pieces of high-quality dark chocolate.
This is easy if you've been reading Paris Breakfasts for a bit... Have fun!