Paris Pastry Meditation

Religieuse Violette, watercolor, 9" x 11"
I thought I was posting on the lovely, orderly way Parisian patissiers.
Line up their creations.

Like soldiers standing to attention in perfect rows.
Then I had one of those Eureka! moments. Is it possible my obsession with French pastry has everything to do with a desperate need for order and nothing to do with chocolate or whipped cream?

These perfect disks lined up with such precision.

Labeled and priced, measured centimeters apart, are the exact opposite of my chaotic studio.

I fight a losing battle with entropy daily,

Yet the vision of glossy tartes.

Is like a Zen meditation.

Do I start an ashram in Paris and spread the joie?

Should I go to pastry school?Would you like a peek at my studio 2011 to see if there's been any improvement?

Do tell PBers.
BONJOUR PASTRY MEDIATATION!

Paris Monuments...

At the Salon du Chocolat, Leonidas made this huge chocolatey homage... To the Paris Opera. If I didn't look at all this chocolate in an abstract way my goose would surely be cooked. And I would weigh in at 500 pounds as some readers have suggested...ahem
The first week in Paris your eyes are glued to the patisserie vitrines (windows). Then they start to wonder up above to the amazing architecture... No wonder Parisien chocolatiers and patissieres are strongly influenced by the aesthetics of their surroundings. Is it possible not to soak this up and then recreate it into chocolate walls and bricks of great beauty ? OK, they should have tried harder to show off their asthetic heritage - this purveyor is from the sticks obviously... The magnificent of scale, the grandeur of Paris...

La Maison du chocolat knows how to translate it with style and genius.

Sigh...

Yum...

So lovely...

Very lovely indeed...

Is there another place on the planet that combines beautiful architecture...

And beautiful pastry? I think not.
When I got home I found the perfect homage to both sent me by designer Susan Hockbaum. Susan had the wherewithal to take Paris pastries outside and shoot them amidst the architecture."In Paris, everything looks like dessert."

BONJOUR PARIS MONUMENTS!

Musee Fauchon

Where is the first place you go when you land in Paris religiously?

Maybe it's because I used to go every Sunday to Fauchon

That I find myself heading there right off the plane practically...

My favorite museum never disappoints....

There are tons of macarons! Boxes and boxes...
Long, square....

Plus individually packed...
And bien sur decorating gateaux like crazy... It's the craziness of Fauchon that appeals to me...
The nutty over-the-topness of it all...

And they (like moi) LOVE the geometrie!!!

I had lunch in this geometric crazy box. I dragged the box home and of course it fell to pieces. Craziness is not meant to last...

Wish I had dragged this box home, though I do have the cup and drink out of it daily. So where is the first place you head for in Paris?

Tell all!

BON WEEK-END!

CitronTarte Squared

Fauchon Carre Citron, watercolor, 7 5/8" x 10 1/2"

Reading Clotilde's cookbook last night, I was reminded again how much childhood experiences influence our food tastes. I was the "finicky eater" in my family.

I can't remember all the things I would not eat, but cake and crust was a big one and no birthday cake - mine or anyone else's.

My Mother cleverly devised an annual menu that included lobster and Lemon Meringue pie. And no cake! Today is my birthday, but I celebrated in advance by visiting Fauchon my first day in Paris.I had to try out their "squared" version of Tarte au Citron. They call it, Carre Citron or lemon square.

The individual portion is not unlike a Lemon Meringue pie

with it's tiny white rectangle of meringue sitting on top.

If this isn't crazy creative I don't know what is and a good example of pastry geometrie! Naturally I had to try out the lemon eclair while I was there...Plus chocolat chaud / hot chocolate as part of my Parisian research project. Only Fauchon could come up with a "gold" plastic spoon...Here the Fauchon vendeuse/salesperson has spotted my camera and is looking daggers at me. The upstairs tea salon is being renovated, so there's a temporary cafe setup for us researchers to test out desserts. All gone and very delicious, which tells you zip.
True Fauchon's Carre Citron did not beat out the all-time winner of THE TARTE SU CITRON CONTEST, Pierre Herme.
But it was unctuous and VERY tart, the way the best lemony desserts should be.
After reading Clotilde's recipe for tarte crust (p. 182) I feel guilty that I left the crust even if it was cake. Next time...

Gâteaux Glossaire

I'd much rather drink my chocolate out of a cup or bite into a tablette (solid bar) than munch on a piece of gâteau (cake). Maybe it's a texture issue. I never cared for drawing with crumbly charcoal or pastels either... But they are very nice to paint and fall into my theory of pastry géométrie by being round, square, triangular, rectangular and so on. That odd shaped little cake in front of the macarons is called a Brownie by arnaud Del Mon Tel. The French do have a penchant (inclination) for les mots Anglais like "crumble" or "brownie" or "cake"?! Even Hermé lists "cakes" in his spring catalogue...

Now this is what you would call a gateau, a slice of a much bigger gateaux (cake) usually for 6/8 people, a party cake. This slice was hellish to paint. Chocolate can so easily become muck if you're not careful. This slice doesn't make the grade as bonified chocolate :(

I loved this architectural wonder of Gérard Mulot's. Kind of like the Guggenheim Museum. I only ate the chocolate disk on top...

Here's a chock-o-block of chocolate cake from P Hermé. He lists it in his petits-fours (that's an individual-sized cake) selection and titles it Carrément Chocolat.

I'd make a great partner on a pâtisserie jaunt, since I can easily pass up an opera cake. Hear that Robyn? I picked off the outer shards of chocolate on this Pierre Hermé Plénitude and tossed the rest. Mechante!(naughty) Anonymous left a comment...I have decided that my diet plan involves eating only the desserts that you feature. So keep that in mind... I'm easily influenced. Leave more suggestions for me :)