I'm down to my last few delicious SQUARES of chocolate from the Fancy Food Show a month ago...Pierre Hermé likes SQUARES too.His Carrément Chocolat shows up in many sizes - as a gateau for 4, a popsicle, as a portion individule (I bought this one).
Any help from the audience is appreciated.
Paris pastry chefs use plenty of geometry in their creations.
Desserts naturally take the form of abstract geometric shapes-cubes, spheres, cylinders, pyramids, triangles what with the SQUARE and circular pans used for baking. But What's so great about geometric forms and why ever would these influence French pastry chefs?
Pierre Hermé Gateaux, watercolor, 10 1/2 x 7 1/2"Cezanne said, if you can draw a cube, a sphere, a pyramid...you can draw anything. Most art foundation courses start off drawing these same shapes. They're the basis of all forms.
Ok not mashed potatos, but the head, the figure etc can all be carved out of a cube.
There's an inherent harmony in these shapes.
They're pleasing aesthetically to the eye and no chefs are more conscious of aesthetics than pastry chefs IMO.
Everywhere I looked in Paris I saw these pure geometric shapes. Square within a square at La Maison du Chocolat, rectangles at Christian Constant, triangles and circles at Lenotre, on and on.
BTW if you buy any of these don't let them sit around as I did on my drawing table -- you'll have a nice penicillin farm in no time at all.
BTW if you buy any of these don't let them sit around as I did on my drawing table -- you'll have a nice penicillin farm in no time at all.
The vendeuse at Jean-Paul Hévin said ONLY 3 HOURS OUTSIDE THE FRIGO! after I left a raspberry rectangle out while I went south for 3 DAYS!!!
And let me tell you, even in the Frigo - do not forget these guys! OK do you think I'm nuts? Feel free to tell me know your opinion of the Paris pastry geometry theory.
