Pâtisserie - centuries of craftsmanship
"the secret lies in the technique and passion, not in the ingredients." Eat the Globe
This is one of the desserts that won the 2019 World Championships of Patisserie. This year the competition was won by a Malaysian team and here are two more of the desserts that won the award for them.
And that comment about it not being the ingredients that are important was particularly relevant this year, because apparently the challenge was that they had to be vegan - no butter, no cream! (Vegan again - I really must do veganism.)
So this is the top of today's tree as regards patisserie and yet you and I can enjoy similarly complicated, artistic and yes, tasty, things every day at your local shopping centre or café strip. Here in Melbourne we have Laurent:
and also Brunetti
Just to quote the obvious and most well-known, but there are many, many more smaller producers of quality patisserie.
These are things of beauty. Yes, occasionally the taste does not live up to the appearance and yes, some are mass produced in factories, but don't they all look just gorgeous? And lots of them taste good too. They are a treat, an indulgence. Something to lift the soul on a dull day. Something to make you feel rich. Sort of the opposite of comfort food which almost means that you wrap yourself in your sorrows. Patisserie on the other hand is lifting yourself out of your sorrow - as witness the glass of champagne with the absolutely gorgeous looking Laurent patisserie. It is stunning. Sculpture on a plate. Celebration and escape. Elegance, perfection, aspirational.
I am writing about patisserie today because this was the subject of Gabriel Gaté's second Best of Taste Le Tour. He ended up by demonstrating crêpes - a kind of patisserie I suppose, but I thought I would waffle today about patisserie itself.
I found this potted history on a site called Eat the Globe, although subsequent readings on the history of patisserie elsewhere varied slightly as to who was responsible or when these events occurred. (For example I saw Popelini mentioned elsewhere but a century later). Suffice to say that the art is ancient, even if all of the following is not necessarily accurate.
"In 1270 Régnaut-Barbon decided he wants to make oublies (confectioners’ ancestors) and pastries.
The puff pastry was created in 1540 by Popelini.
26 years later, in 1566, the oublies were renamed confectioners.
It is believed that the foliated pastry was invented in 1630 by a French painter. (Foliated pastry? - flaky pastry maybe.)
In 1638 France tasted tartelettes amandine for the first time.
1660 was the year whipped cream was invented by Vatel, the cook of the Prince of Condé.
1686 was the year that started the French café culture in France. Le Procope, the first Parisian café, served coffee, tea, ice cream, and chocolate. (similar establishments sprang up in London too.)
1778 is the year the first nougat factory was founded.
Macarons were invented in 1793.
1808 is the year brioche became a very popular pastry in Paris.
12 years later, the piping bag was invented.
In 1830 the ice cream machine was born.
The ganache was invented in 1850 by a Parisian confectioner.
In 1879 the first Christmas log was made by Charabot.
Candied chestnuts became a thing in 1882.
In 1890 tarte bourdaloue (French pear tart) was created.
In 1919 France decided to create professional courses for confectionary apprentices.
The first ice cream factory in France opened its doors in 1924."
Eat the Globe
Interestingly the writer does not mention Antoine Carême (1784-1833) who is generally credited with elevating French pastry to high art. It also doesn't mention that:
"in the 19th century, Paris became home to the first open-air café of baked goods, illustrating Paris’ pioneering developments not just in recipes and pastries, but also in the accessibility and delivery of the product." Alexa Lauren Patisserie
Man, it seems, has always had a sweet tooth and I think I wrote about this on a previous occasion. But this initially mostly came from honey and from fruit. Butter came a bit later and therefore pastry, although I think cakes preceded pastry.
Patisserie is more than catering to a sweet tooth though isn't it? It's catering to the human desire for beauty - yes I think there is one - and the human desire to show off. Because - absolutely - patisserie is showing off. Until the nineteenth century patisserie - or the consumption thereof was largely the domain of the rich after all. And today it's an industry.
But also a cottage industry. In France you apparently cannot advertise yourself as a patisserie unless you have a master patissier in-house - that is someone who has served the apprenticeship and taken the exams. But every little French village, almost, has a patisserie. David loves them. Lunch in France is always something sweet (for him) bought from a patisserie. And we have often bought our 'home' dessert from one of them.
Most French housewives do not actually make their own desserts. Particularly on Sundays after church, the French will be seen flocking to the local patisserie to buy their dessert for Sunday lunch. Not only are those pastries beautifully presented in the shop, but they are also beautifully packaged to take home. Beauty is key. You can just see the range of options in David's shop, and below is a shop in Lille. Me - I go for the eclairs - particularly the coffee ones. Or the tarts. But it's all gorgeous - and affordable. And a real treat. And so time-consuming to make, so why would you bother?
These days even modest restaurants will serve you exquisite looking desserts - here are three we ate in France that we thought were worth photographing. Only one was from a relatively posh restaurant - the others were 'ordinary', in the sense that they were just local restaurants of no particular fame.
But then 'plating' is the thing isn't it? Just about everywhere.
Patisserie actually has a personal connection for me, I found, when I started looking into my family's history. My great-great-great grandfather was a pastry cook/confectioner in Georgian London. He had a shop in Skinner Street - shown below:
As it says on the picture it was a somewhat short-lived street - built to improve the rather awful streets that existed, and later demolished to make way for the Holborn Viaduct. But he had moved on well before then, well retired I think. Some accounts I have read about Skinner Street imply that it was not a success as a street, but the picture above would seem to deny that. He certainly made a fair amount of money at it. I wonder what sort of things he made but have yet to find an advertisement. There must be one somewhere. Here is a cartoon of such a shop at about the right time:
But the Regency era was also well known for its ices and fancy glacé fruits, so who knows. Did he just make pies and pasties or was he into fancier stuff? I have to say that I am particularly proud of this particular ancestor - he came from nothing to die 'a gentleman' and comparatively well off. And his grandfather was a baker too, and cousins designed ovens - so there are definitely foodie genes in that line (my father's).
We need beauty in our lives. I truly believe it is a deep-seated desire and patisserie is the haute couture, the high art of the food world. Perfection on a plate. Below is the winner of an Irish competition sponsored by Valrhona. Gorgeous.
