The season’s first chocolat chaud

I’m neither part of literary elite nor a tourist. But I like a good cup of hot chocolate. As do my friends, Sylvia and Lionel. So when it started pouring on a Saturday afternoon, we were outside just the right spot for a late-day treat: Les Deux Magots.

Located across the street from l’Eglise Saint-Germain-de-Prés, next door to Café Flore, everyone knows this landmark café. But did you know they serve one of the best pitchers of cocoa in town? C’est vrai.


Rich, chocolaty and smooth. Not too hot, not obscenely large. Just the right texture, flavor and size.


Just the right thing to share with friends on a Saturday in Paris.

Fancy new packaging at Jean-Paul Hévin

Is one allowed to have a favorite chocolatier here in Paris? I mean, there are Michel Chadun’s pavés, Jean-Charles Roux’s bourbon truffles and Michel Cluizel’s Single Plantation tablettes. Where to begin?

Moi, I’m a sucker for packaging, so a window like Jean Paul Hevin’s works on me.



After careful consideration—macarons? Tins of chocolate-covered almonds or perles? Boites of bonbons?—I went inside.




Voila, the new packaging. Snazzy silver foil tablettes and bags of bonbons that are good to go.



Tins of truffles and mendiants.


But it’s obviously much more than his slick packaging.

I first bit into a Hévin bouche two years ago, and it was heaven. As are his choco desserts.

Because when it comes to chocolate…




…glorious chocolate…


I think I have to declare Jean Paul Hévin my favorite.

Sweet Freak at Stohrer

Every time I step across “Stohrer”, scrolled in gold in the turquoise tiled floor of this historic patisserie, I want to have a tea party.
With the naked figures in Paul Baudry’s murals staring down at me, I can’t help but channel Marie Antoinette and her three-foot-tall pompadours, five-foot-wide ballgowns, and shoes adorned with roses. Everything at Stohrer is fabulous, right down to its royal history.


The story goes like this: when King Stanislas of Poland’s daughter, Marie Leszczynska, came to Paris in 1725 to marry King Louis XV, she came with her royal pastry chef, Nicolas Stohrer. Five years after arriving in the court of Versailles, he opened this gorgeous patisserie on rue Montorguiel. 280 years later, I am lucky enough to live right around the corner. Danger, danger!

Floating along the display case, it’s easy to be hypnotized by the pretty colors, exquisite constructions and sheer embarrassment of riches.

There are chocolates.

There are petite tartelettes with berries aligned just so.

The large tarts are every bit as exquisite.



Just look at the artistry.

The decadence.


Et voila, the éclairs. Sigh.

If I had bags of money, I’d buy the savory bits for dinner every night.


Then there’s the Baba au Rhum. Nicolas Stohrer actually invented this dessert when he splashed a dry Polish brioche with sweet Malaga wine, flavored it with the saffron, and added pastry cream and dried fresh grapes to the mix. As King Stanislas had been reading Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights at the time, he baptized his chef’s creation the Ali Baba.

Today, Stohrer’s Baba au Rhum is unchanged. Though there are different varieties, including the Baba Chantilly with berries.

Am I becoming a wee bit too familiar with these desserts? Jamais. That's the job of a Sweet Freak, mes amis.

American Smackdown, Éclair Edition

Paris, we have a winner!

For the second American Smackdown in Paris, we (happily) got after another French classic: the crunchy, custardy chocolate éclair (or, “the macaron of the ’80s,” as Emily called it).

There was no shortage of contenders from which to select. Every neighborhood pastry shop along with the plus haut patissiers serves up éclairs. Which makes the Smackdown even more sensational. Whose pastry is the freshest? Whose filling is the most chocolaty-custardy? Whose icing is the sweetest and most complementary? There was only one way to find out. A very select tasting panel sat down to with samples from Stohrer and Jacques Genin to determine… who has the best éclair?

“Omigod, they’re just leagues apart!”

Stohrer and Jacques Genin have both received high accolades. The former is an old-school patisserie—founded by King Louis XV’s pastry chef in 1730. Refined, classic, beautiful. A Parisian landmark.


The latter is a modern chocolatier. After years of supplying the top restaurants and hotels (e.g. Crillon, Plaza Athénée and Le Meurice) with chocolates and petits fours, Genin opened his elegant Haut Marais salon de thé in late 2008. Sophisticated but rebellious.


The two are different on almost every level and evoked very strong feelings.


Appearance, Stohrer

“Love the matte, clean look.”
“These look like doughnuts.”
“Very uniform. But is this a good or bad thing?”
“I like these. They’re very neat.”

Appearance, Jacques Genin

“Shiny is appealing, but a bit messy.”
“Flashy but trashy.”
“More straight from the kitchen imperfections, which I like.”

“Depends if you’re a matte or glossy person, really.”


Pastry, Stohrer


“Nice form. Round, solid structure.”
“I like the lines down the side, it’s very classy.”

Pastry, Jacques Genin


“It collapses. It’s spongy and thin.”
“A bit soft.”

Ultimately, the pastry came down to Emily’s “Squeeze Test”: the consensus was Jacques Genin’s pastry was thin and flimsy, resulting in a messier experience.


Filling, Stohrer

“Rich, chocolaty, smooth, dee-lish. But a little flour-y.”
“Lovely round flavor. A bit too much though.”
“Very round-y kind of warm chocolate.”

Filling, Jacques Genin

“I feel like he’s challenging us.”
“Too cocoa-y.”
“Too bitter.”
“More pudding-like.”

We agreed you could taste the purer cocoa of Jacques Genin—which can be too “bitter” when pitted against Stohrer’s sweeter, more sugary chocolate filling. But, going back to Stohrer from Genin’s chocolate could also “leave a funky aftertaste.”

Overall harmony


Given the positive gut reaction to Stohrer and the bite-by-bite dissent over Jacques Genin, there’s a lot to be said for the melding of Stohrer’s flavors and textures and the balance of pastry to filling. It was clean, neat, sweet and delicious.

Jacques Genin looked snazzy and has the appearance and taste of high-end ingredients, but it somehow fails to please. It’s squishy, messy, and has contrasting sweet and bitter notes.

The Smackdown verdict?

“On the pure line of which I would buy again? Stohrer.”