My Visit to Paris - Cédric Grolet: Opéra
I hope you've seen my Instagram posts @MarthaStewart48. I just returned from a trip to Paris to attend the Hermès Spring Show 2024. During my brief visit to the French capital, I stopped in at the world famous bakery and café, Cédric Grolet: Opéra - not once, but twice!
Cédric Grolet is a leading French pastry chef and the executive pastry chef at Le Meurice, in Paris, part of the Dorchester Collection. He operates two of his own patisseries in the city including one inside Le Meurice, and Opéra, on the avenue de l'Opéra, which he opened in 2019. Cédric opened a third shop in London in 2022, and recently a fourth in Singapore. His pastries focus on fruits, and his unique interpretation of traditional French desserts. I tasted some of his popular creations including a Fleur Vanille, a Fleur Paris Brest Pécan, his signature nut cookies, and of course, his delectable croissants.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- This is the front of Opéra at 35 avenue de l’Opéra, where long lines of pastry-loving customers wait for hours to taste the sweet creations.
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- The famed Avenue de l’Opéra was created from 1864 to 1879 as part of Haussmann’s renovation of Paris. It is located in the center of the city, running northwest from the Louvre to the Palais Garnier, the primary opera house of Paris, until the opening of the Opéra Bastille in 1989. Here is a look down the avenue with a view toward the Opéra.
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- Here I am with the master patissier, Cédric Grolet, who first found his passion for cooking and baking when he was 11 working in the kitchen of his grandparents’ hotel in Andrézieux-Bouthéon, in the Loire Valley. Cédric entered pastry school at 14. At 21, he went to work at the renowned Fauchon and now, less than two decades later, he owns four of his own establishments.
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- Opéra is an elegant café and bakery. It is simply furnished and impeccably clean.
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- Upstairs, a number of grey bistro tables and chairs offer guests a place to dine.
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- Mirrors on the ceiling allow one to see behind the counter, where many of Cédric’s creations are prepared.
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- Here is a tray of Cédric’s signature nut cookies – peanut butter cookies topped with a variety of nuts such as hazelnuts, also known as filberts, almonds, and pistachios. These cookies are about six-inches across – big enough to share, if one so desires.
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- This is a Fleur Vanille, a sweet pastry with vanilla crisp, vanilla milk jam, vanilla dacquoise, and Madagascar vanilla ganache.
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- And this is called Fleur Paris Brest Pécan, a crispy sweet pastry with crunchy pecan, pecan praline, pecan gianduja, Paris Brest pecan cream, and soft choux pastry. This is Cédric’s rendition of the well-known dessert. Traditionally, the Paris Brest is made in a circular shape with a hole in the middle, as in a bicycle wheel. The name Paris Brest came from a bicycle race in Paris to the city of Brest and back.
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- These breads resemble small boules, or “balls” of bread.
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- Some of them were covered with seasonings similar to those on an “everything bagel” here in the US – poppy seeds, toasted sesame seeds, dried garlic, dried onion, and salt.
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- And the tart shells are just the way I like them – dark and fully baked.
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- Each one of these is perfectly browned.
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- And here are two of his larger tart shells – also dark in color. Cèdric uses a blind baking, or pre-baking, method for his shells to ensure the shells are finished to perfection.
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- Inside the kitchen, Cédric’s team works efficiently to make all the pastries and other confections. He says by the time the doors open, the pastries are already made.
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- Here, a giant commercial immersion blender is used to mix a batter.
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- Even the waffles are shaped like flowers. The edges are cut using scissors.
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- These waffles were delicious – crunchy exteriors with a warm dough filling and served with crème Chantilly – a cream sweetened with sugar and flavored with vanilla.
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- This was a refreshing coffee essence drink with coconut water and one large ice cube.
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- And here is Cédric’s famous flaky croissant – baked to golden perfection.
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- All finished with a cup of delicious café crème. If you’re ever in Paris, I hope you have some time to go to Cedric Grolet: Opéra. It is definitely worth the trip. In my next blog, I will share more photos of my Paris excursion and the Hermès Spring Show 24.
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