Death by Chocolate by Devanshi Mody
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The temptation was to compile the finest chocolate desserts I have encountered anywhere in the world. It certainly sounds more appetising. However, I realised that about 99% of my list comprised French chefs, mostly in Paris. Why am I surprised? For nobody has quite mastered the technique of pastry making like the French have.
And, today, nobody makes chocolate the way the French do. So, naturally, nobody makes chocolate desserts and pastries like the French do, be they in Michelin-starred restaurants or in the most chi-chi of Parisian patisseries and salons de thé.
Therefore, I’ve decided here to pay tribute to those French and indeed Parisian chefs whose various and wondrous creations have haunted me, given me restless nights of unabashed longing, tormented me with the agony of separation when away from them, and over the years they have lured me back from far and wide to Paris over and over and over again for more and more and more…
3-Michelin-starred French Chef Guy Savoy is perhaps best known for the “classique incontournable de la maison”, the famed black truffle and artichoke soup into which you dip an exquisitely delicate buttered brioche. What not everybody knows is that this master chef was summoned upon to create a chocolate for the 150th anniversary of legendary Belgium chocolate institution Neuhaus. But what anybody who has visited Guy Savoy would know or should know is the magic chocolate ball, La Boule Noire, that melts with sensual slowness as hot chocolate descends unctuously upon it.
Memorable too is the Noire, the slim rectangle of intense chocolate that comes topped with equally dark chocolate ice cream. How could I forget this dessert? The first time I visited Guy Savoy, the maitre d’ had decided I try it. I wanted something more exotic. He insisted. We argued. He brought me two desserts. The one I still remember is the must-do chocolate desert.
Piège in French means “trap”, and you fall voluntarily headlong into Jean-François Piège’s gastronomic trap at Les Ambassadeurs. This young 2-Michelin starred chef is hailed as a master technician. And perhaps nowhere is his craft more manifestly demonstrated than in the signature dessert Choco-Café.
A shocker it certainly is. This to-die-for bipartite dome, dangerously chocolate on top, chicly coffee below is of a texture so tantalisingly tender and sumptuously sublime that you remember every mouthful of it, even if you’re feeling heavy in the head after a few glasses from the superb wine list.
You go to Le Meurice for its marvellous succession of savoury courses. But forget not the deserts. The world’s most divine deserts are created by the youthful, 20-something-year-old chef pastry chef Camille, who is as delectable as his desserts and blushes profusely at the mildest compliment. It’s a treat to speak to the boy wonder who does wonders with chocolate. His macarons served with coffee are sure to give Ladure sleepless nights…
One place where you will not fail to be shocked is at L’Arpège. Apres tout, Alain Passard is the most eccentric and innovative of Parisian 3-Michelin-starred chefs and is perhaps more in the news for des creations that are wacky if not insane: crazy carrots in chocolate sauce, avocado and pistachio soufflé, tomato infused with 12 flavours in orange sugar - a dessert - garlic crème brûlée, olive macarons…
Whilst Passard experiments with contradictory flavours and savours, constantly pushing the boundaries of the “acceptable,” one of his best-known and best-loved desserts to date remains the mille feuille au chocolat. This colossal portion of the most sinful chocolate luxuriously spattered between layers of flaky pastry is decadence incarnate.
At slick and stylish Le Carré des Feuillants, 2-Michelin-starred Alain Dutournier, who declares that he has stopped trying to keep up with trends in food and his innovations are intended to please but himself, will certainly please his clientele with his most inspired exotic desserts - the trio of mocha crème brûlé is a beautiful synthesis of chocolate and coffee. But more importantly, this is amongst the only place in Paris where you still get a good moeulleux au chocolat. Not to be boring, it comes with a twist of chicory.
At Le Plaza Athéné, succumb to the charms of Paris’s sweetest seducer: Pastry Chef Christophe Michalak, who won the World Pastry Championship in 2005. Renowned for his pioneering re-inventions of French classics, the celebrated chef is all set to trouble Paris with his lethally sultry Christmas creation: La Buche 2008. Discover chocolate mousse jazzed up with praline, banana cream and a hint of lime.
Fauchon still makes Paris’s best madeleines. These traditional teatime delicacies are seasonally re-incarnated in extraordinary flavours chez Fauchon: sesame, pistachio, or lemon madeleines. As for their éclairs, these days you get raspberry, plum, passion fruit and what not, but they‘ll be ever known for their dark chocolate éclair, the classic of all classics. And the dedicated chocoholic won’t despair with the chocolate madeleines.
Apparently Japanese tourists come to Paris especially to buy Laduré macarons and Louis Vuitton bags - Laduré macarons, at least, are worth the trip! I never liked macarons, until I tried Laduré macarons. They simply melt in your mouth. And there is no doubt the dark chocolate macaron is the fantastic. Ah, there are few things in life more delightful that the most rarefied of Laduré chocolate macarons. They also do Paris’s best chocolat chaud.
Pierre Hermé is hailed as the world’s best pastry chef, and rightly so. Hermé, who once worked for Laduré, now has his own boutique where he continues seasonally to dazzle with sensationally whimsical creations. Simply sublime.
There are few things classic at avant-garde Pierre Hermé. But he can revolutionise the most classic of French pastries with rarefied textures. Astonishing! If it’s worth coming to Paris just for Laduré macarons, it’s worth staying in Paris to try each one of M Hermé’s creations.
Carrément chocolat is for the hopeless chocolate addict. But this season try Bûche Origine (tender chocolate biscuit, light ganache made with Pure Origin Porcelana chocolate from Venezuela) or Bonbon Chocolat au Macaron (crisp layer of crushed almonds, chocolate macaron, soft almond paste coated with dark chocolate).
Hermé’s pastries are so refined, that it’s quite easy to have 6 in a shot (trust me, I’ve done it) without feeling ill. As the French would say, “Pierre Hermé, il n’y a que ca…”
Of course, if you’re a hopeless shopaholic and chocoholic, then Jean Paul Hévin is the place for you. Situated in the Faubourg St Honoré, one of Paris’s chicest shopping districts, Jean Paul Hévin is ideal for a break in a shopping spree. In a salon de thé that looks like it is made of rich chocolate walls, enjoy a spot of tea and a bit of cake, or a lot(!)
Jean Paul Hévin, one of Paris’s finest chocolatiers is said to make the world’s best chocolate-based pastries. The variety is seemingly endless. You ask what is good. You’re told, “tout est bon.” How does one choose between chocolate-passion pastry, chocolate-raspberry, chocolate-pistachio, chocolate-caramel, chocolate-chocolate? Can’t decide? Well, try them all! It’s so decadent, so naughty, so necessary…
Indulge yourself with some delcious sweets. Take a look at our lisitings of luxury hotels in Paris and take a chocolate tour of the city.