Perhaps my favorite pastry shop in Paris is Sadaharu Aoki.
And I know I'm not alone. I ran into a famous chocolatier from the neighborhood during my last visit, who was picking up his goûter, or afternoon snack, as they call it in Paris. We recognized each other and he smiled at me while choosing a Thé Vert Napolean; layers of vivid green tea pastry cream stacked between dark-golden puff pastry. A wise choice since Sadaharu Aoki is widely-regarded as the master of puff pastry.
After one buttery, crackly bite...you'd agree.
It was a long and difficult decision, but I chose this perfect Chocolate and Salted Butter-Caramel Tart for my goûter.
It was extraordinarily good.
Buttery-crisp pâte sucée filled with rich and salty caramel that oozed out when I attacked it with my fork. On top sat a spiral of milk chocolate mousse, so soft and so creamy.
Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki
35, rue de Vaugirard
and
56, Boulevard Port Royal
Paris
I agree that Sadaharu is a very talented pâtissier, the first bite of many of his cakes is truly wonderful, but! But he puts too much sugar in his pâtisseries, and the subsequent bites take exponentially more time to swallow; and a lot of macha tea. I do not wish to blame him in particular: that unfortunately is a too common trait of many a pâtissier. Even Pierre Hermé puts too much sugar in some of his creations (mister H and miss Glagal Ispahan for delirious examples). My take on this is that a pâtissier is, basically, a child. And as we all remember, as children we had an unlimited passion for sugar. Those who grow up to be real adults, from a psychoanalytical point of view, do have adult tastes: they prefer salt to sugar. Those who become neurotic adults, or normal adults with a neurotic fixation on sugar, and everything unconsciously associated with it, are prime candidates for becoming popular pâtissiers among adults who "suffer" from the same neurotic fixation, the largest portion of the pâtisseries-buying population. A viscious circle made of candy. Unconsciously they may suffer from a lack of love in their childhood that got soothed with sugar, or their parents made sugary cakes all the time and they want to go back to this paradise lost by more cakes everyday of their life, or anxiety blahblahblah...consult a psychoanalyst to know more reasons.
I call for all imaginative cooks who prefer salt to be courageous and become pâtissiers: please save us from the children pâtissiers!
Or Sadaharu, Pierre, and their brethrens could face the truth and seek help.
So help me Freud.
WIGD, my mother brought me back some of Aoki's macarons, and there was one that was described as "sushi" flavored. It did remind me of raw salmon dipped in soysauce. Very weird. And there was a wasabi flavored macaron, and one that tasted like a Japanese rice crcker. So he is getting into the salt.
Ditto! We just visited Paris and are already missing it (especially Sadaharu Aoki)! Reading your blog is a true delight and consolation.
Could I ask a favor? On the morning of our departure we had our last Parisian coffee and Aoki’s pastries from Gourmet Lafayette. We got a napolean-like cake designed to resemble cherry blossoms. It was made of cassis and chocolate, and scattered with fleur de sel. We made a huge mistake of not taking pictures before devouring it. Another pastry we had was a chocolate mousse-like cake with 3 whole marrons…. Could you find out their names (and if possible, photographs,) next time you visit Sadaharu Aoki? THANKS A LOT!
Hi Where is Guy Debord?
Thanks for the link. (It’s very kind of you.) The link had many good images, but what I was looking for was NOT THERE. I did do my search (and my homework) before I posted.
IKS Liao, all is well that ends well! Thanks to you, I found Sada's site, with all his cakes...and yours?
http://www.sadaharuaoki.com/
Sada's official website was the FIRST site I searched, and NO, the cakes I was looking for were NOT THERE, either.
Just to clarify, my original comment was left for Mr. David Lebovitz. Thanks, anyway.
Hi David,
Sorry, I didn't mean to start a "private discussion" on your blog. (This is the first time I ever left a comment on the internet, and I didn't know that I should specifically address to the host of the blog....) I enjoyed your blog very much. But why did I discover it after I returned from Paris? :-P
Hi, I think I must agree with Guy Debord about him putting too much sugar in his cakes :) I really like his classic cakes, but am not sure about his matcha ones.