Instagram sure knows what to send my way! I fell in love with Cedric Grolet’s antics in the kitchen, creating the most beautiful, realistic entremets. This talented french pastry chef has been dazzling the world with his beautiful works of edible art. My birthday treat to myself in Paris that year was coffee and dessert at his cafe at l’Opera.
I have booked this treat well in advance. There is already a long line outside, and entry is only via advance booking. We are sure to arrive on time and are dressed up in nice clothes to be fashionably chic in la belle Paris. I am so excited to be doing something so amazing: eating at a truly avant garde pattisier’s cafe. This is where it all began for Grolet, his first cafe. Now he flies around the world, posting marvellous videos on Instagram, creating beautiful things made of fruit and chocolate, so beautiful it seems like an absolute shame to bite into them.
As you enter the cafe, you pass between two counters of delectable concoctions being parcelled for delivery. Nothing is available without pre order and we are disappointed we cannot carry anything home for later.
Upstairs, the cafe is contemporary, with the coffee bar island taking pride of place. The interiors are stark white, dull orange and gold- dramatic and edgy. We have ordered our desserts in advance and I am excited to be sitting here at the large glass window, looking out onto the busy Avenue de l’Opera.
The service is impeccable, the entire cafe experience is very modern yet so very classic: the starched whites, the smell of chocolate, the hissing of the coffee machine juxtaposed against dull gold metallic accents and stark white machinery, reflections on the ceiling and this extremely unusual menu. Nothing is what it seems, but somehow the experience is delightful.
Cedric Grolet creates luscious pastries using fresh, seasonal fruit as the main ingredient. He is most famous for creating uber realistic fruit like lemons or passion fruit, a vanilla bean, an apple, an orange, and then he fills them the shell with gelle, cream, mousse. It is hard to believe these have been made by hand from scratch. His entremets are exquisitely designed with a mix of modern edge, realism and whimsy.
We are served a giant vanilla bean, so realistic looking with its striations and colours. Sliced in half, it reveals a smooth chocolate interior and every bite is delicious. The lemon meringue tart comes looking like a plump daisy, and we find the tangiest lemon curd on a tart of fine sable pastry within.
The water is in elegant glass bottles. The crockery is deep grey marble pottery, or stark black and bronze, a fine base for the gleaming pastries. The coffee is strong, the cutlery metallic gold. Drama all the way, and finely unfolded at the table.
Despite previous visits to Angelina and La Duree, I would come here first and allow my self to be enchanted by the future of patisserie.
Thewanderingindiangourmet 