Dessert Buzz sat down with Francois Payard last Friday for an expansive interview.  Here is Part II.  Read part I here.

DessertBuzz: One thing that I come across frequently when speaking to people about desserts vs. savory dishes is that they don’t seem to appreciate how much time it takes a pastry chef to put together one of these high end pastries.
Francois Payard:  It’s a problem in America, sometimes people cannot appreciate the difference between something incredible and something simple.  Like the cupcake.  Why is the cupcake so big?  It’s ok. It’s just even good.  And you know what?  To make a cupcake you can even make it with a mix and frosting.  My daughter can make that!  I’m sorry I don’t have a daughter!   But I would like to say that what we do, you need a talent.  You need people with training.  It’s like comparing the restaurant Daniel and going to a brasserie?  It’s still food, but what kind of food?  You go to a restaurant for an experience and you go to a brasserie every day for lunch but people sometimes think it’s the same thing sometimes.  The (the fuss over) cupcakes and everything is a little bit too much now.

DB: I agree.
FP: I think because Americans, and you have to make sure what I say is sometimes tough are very kiddish and that’s the reason why a cupcake (is so popular) it’s funny and everything, but for me I don’t see the $4.50 on the cupcake and I see $6.50 on the cake and people tell you $6.50 (is too expensive for the cake) just try to make a triple decoration on the side of a cake, try to make a decoration.

DB: Do you ever take some time in the kitchen and just experiment like a child?
FP: Every Payard cake, I created all of them.  Even if I have my business (to attend to ) I can eat cake in my mind.  Let me explain to you.  See the cake for Valentine’s Day?  I just wrote the recipe on paper and I gave to my chef to make it and I already eat the cake!  How?  I know what the sable breton tastes like, I  know what the mascarpone cream for the Napolean tastes like,  I know what the vanilla pound cake that I make tastes like and I know the mousse that I used to make for the Notre Dame.  Now, I just put them all together and I was eating the cake already, but I need to make a final taste to really taste it, pretty much that is the way I create things.

This year was an incredible year (for the number of new cakes presented), few people understand because when you talk about sophisticated taste in pastry-everybody loves sophistication in the kitchen-but not like in a pastry cake where they like to be more basic.  Our cake (we made this year) was a chestnut mousse, vanilla pound cake yuzu and green tea filling and a mint chocolate sugar for the crunch in the middle.  When I make that, it was an incredible taste but I knew the chestnut is a beautiful and delicate flavor, I knew the yuzu make it a little bit acidic to bring all the flavor of the green tea together and open the chestnut without being too much acid for not killing the chestnut because it’s delicate and the vanilla pound cake to bring the vanilla from the chestnut in the chestnut base.  Right away, I may need something and I put this layer of chocolate for the crunch for the texture.

DB: You sound like a painter where you see the art on the canvas before you paint it.
FP It’s the same thing. That’s the way we build cake, but many times, I would like to say, sometime it works sometimes it doesn’t.  It works pretty much all the time when you make it simple and if you want to try to be very complex with many different things sometimes it works sometime it doesn’t but that ’s the way you create things.

DB:  Last week I was speaking with a pastry chef who worked at Le Cirque and is pretty accomplished and he was saying he’s been disappointed in the recent pastry chef graduates, he said he felt like a lot of them did not seem willing to pay their dues.
FP: I would like to say in NY or maybe in America, everybody wants to be a chef very quickly.  But that’s (the) American way, everybody wants to make money.  You live with mom and dad you really want to accomplish what I accomplished in 40 years.  It’s not just American way it’s the way we’re living in the new century.  Nobody, even in Europe, nobody wants to pay their dues like they used to before.  I used to work in a 3-star restaurant in France where the chef worked 14 hours a day!

DB: Ok, I’ll try again, can you to recommend any specific desserts that you’ve encountered in the last couple weeks or months in NY?
FP: No I can’t tell you which people I like that make a very good dessert.  I can tell you Michael (Laiskonis at Le Bernadin)  makes a very, very  good dish that I really like, Johnny (Iuzzini, from Jean Georges) makes a very good dessert, I like Locanda Verde’s (Karen DeMasco) dessert, very much, more bistro-style because it’s a more casual place, but full of flavor, very good flavor.  A few other people make good dessert.  I went to this bakery in Brooklyn, Almondine its very very good, it’s more like a French pastry shop but more Americanized, they have a very good croissant and I think that’s what people want every day now.  I always tell people they can have anything they want for show but at the end of the day, you come back for the food and for something you like and I’m not about nitrogen technique, I learn the technique but they do nothing for me.   the end of the day I’m looking to have food on my plate.  I prefer to go to a A Voce, a great Italian restaurant, or Babbo to a fancy nitrogen pasta or anything.  I like restaurants for an experience, like El Bulli, that’s an experience but you have to fit it in the right place.  More and more, people will come back for real things or revisited dishes that they know well.  You may take a traditional recipe and reinterpret it.  Your grandmother maybe used to make the best chicken you ever had.  If you successfully revisit that chicken recipe, that to me that is more impressive (than the show dishes).

DB: Do you have a minute to take me through the different components of one of the more involved pastries in your case?

Check back Wednesday for a video of Francois discussing the inside of a George V pastry.  For Part I of the interview go here.

Francois Chocolate Bar is located at 63 and Madison inside the Mauboussin jewerly store.

Interviews, Francois Chocolate Bar | 1 Comment »

Dessert Buzz sat down with Francois Payard last Friday for an expansive interview where he discussed some of his upcoming plans in New York, his opinions on the current cupcake craze, what New York desserts he has been enjoying, which New York City pastry chefs he thinks are doing great work and finally he professes his love for chocolate chip cookies.

Part I:
DessertBuzz: How’s the Chocolate bar going?
Francois Payard: Good, you know it’s a small thing. It’s just a small chocolate bar, the idea was to do something really nice on Madison Ave. The whole concept is all about chocolate. It’s something different than Payard because I may reopen Payard very soon but at that time I was looking, the Chocolate Bar was the perfect thing. It was very European, people can come (to Mauboussin) to buy jewelery, have a cup of hot chocolate or a cookie or a chocolate. I think it’s very nice but at the same time, as I wrote on the wall [points to whimsical script writing on the wall] it’s very “kid-ish” and elegant, fun though, I want to make everyone very comfortable, it’s Madison Ave, and I don’t want people to think “oh, I can not afford!”.

DB: Yes, people who appreciate great pastry, can sit down and experience these desserts for maybe $10 or less and don’t have to spend $200 at a meal at Bouley first.
FP [laughs] Yes, I think everything is very affordable, only $6.50 for a pastry or $2 for a macaron, but we are using all very different ingredients, like fresh yuzu from Japan and yuzu juice using a lot of things and the idea was to try be fun but to affordable on Madison Ave. On the weekends we are very busy, but at the same time I want it to be busy but not crazy, like before. Busy, but elegant like I don’t want it to be like Payard was sometimes.

DB: What is next for Francois Payard?
FP: What’s left is to challenge yourself every day. I pretty much lost everything, I have had to start from scratch after losing the place on Lexington Avenue. It’s what we are going to do when we open this new place and I think what people don’t like to do in general is to challenge themselves, but I like challenges, it’s what keeps me fresh and keeps me going. We’ll start all over again and open two new places at the same time and that’s what I have to do to get back to where I was when I closed Lexington Ave.

DB: Are these places going to be in New York?
FP: Yes.

DB: I didn’t know this.
FP: Nobody knows yet.

DB: Wait, are you breaking this news to DessertBuzz [laughs]?
FP: Today [nods yes].

DB: Can you tell me anything about either of them?
FP: No, not yet, you know we are signing the lease on Monday (2/8/2010). And when the lease is signed we will talk more about it.

DB: Can you tell me if it’s going to be a restaurant or dessert destination?
FP: No, it won’t be a restaurant this time because of the location we are looking at. It will be two pastry shop cafes at the same time with very big production capability.

DB: I think a lot of your fans will be very excited, can you tell me-
FP: A lot of these concepts we do at the chocolate bar I wish we could find a location to do downtown. It would be the same idea with the brick (exposed brick wall like at Chocolate Bar), rustic tables, it would be a cool place for the young people and the idea I think is good it’s easy to manage and I think it’s a very different way to have a bakery and I know hot chocolate is much more winter but where is a place where is a place where you can have hot chocolate? Even at Bouley Bakery someone was asking me to send the chocolate for hot chocolate for them because people in America, they love cookies, you see they are the biggest things.

DB: Yes, I know. I am going to nail you down to see which ones (in New York) you like, I know you have a lot of friends.
FP: It’s not about which one I like. You know we make different things for different tastes and everybody is always happy. I decided not make chocolate chip cookie like in America, why? I am French! But we created a flourless cookie and everybody was talking about it. But I have a friend who is making an incredible chocolate chip cookie with a few different recipes and to tell you the truth they are very good. I don’t know which (chef) makes the best because it is not really my forte but many places make a good one, and this guy who works for me makes a very, very good one and I used to love them to tell you the truth, I love cookies much more than pastry, but I won’t be able to tell you which is the best, it depends on how fresh they are - that’s the number one thing. Are they fresh baked or are they 3 days old?

DB: Are you familiar with the some of the destination dessert shops in New York City?
FP: I think if somebody is looking for something it’s a nice bakery,(with) like everyday things to make them happy every day, you know the best cookie with a cup of coffee, a drink and everything. I think New York is a very special market, to tell you the truth, I don’t even know what people (many other pastry chefs) make in the city I just do what I do myself. People come to see what I do. If I have idea, if I make a cake my idea is mostly from Europe.

DB: I read in another interview that you are influenced by members of the Relais Dessert group?
FP: That’s the only influence I get. I’m the only one who’s a pastry shop in NY that’s like a pastry shop. I only look what I do I don’t look what (other) people do.

DB: But you must go out (in New York) to dinner to nice restaurants do you get inspired at all?
FP: Last night I had a very good dessert I went to Locanda Verde, very basic, they serve very simple, but very good execution.

DB: That’s Karen Demasco, formerly of Craft.

FP They were more like a homemade dessert but had very good taste. I had a cheesecake, a pumpkin? A squash? Something like that, very good, very simple. But you have to understand it’s two different worlds. A cake I can make, few people can make cake in this way, few people can be incredibly good at making a restaurant cake and a restaurant dessert.

Part II later this week plus live videos.
Francois Chocolate Bar is located at 63 and Madison inside the Mauboussin jewerly store.

“Sometimes people can not appreciate the difference between something incredible and something simple”

“To tell you the truth I love Cookies much more than Pastry”

Interviews, Francois Chocolate Bar | 5 Comments »

You know those people who always say “Something good will come from this” after something really bad happens, like a robbery at your home.  “Well I am sure now you’ll get a new bicycle, one that you will like even more!”  I always thought these people were full of it but maybe they’re on to something.  I was upset after Luxee (RIP) closed a few months ago, since I really liked their taste in desserts - less sweet, plentiful use of dark cocoa etc… but from the ashes of Luxee comes the Dessert Truck’s brick’n mortar storefront, Dessert Truck Works.

If you aren’t familiar with Dessert Truck’s brilliant, original model here’s a primer.  Essentially, they offered high-end plated desserts created by a former pastry chef at Le Cirque and sold them out of a truck for $5.   As someone who loves this category, this is close to a perfect model to me, since it bypasses the expensive meal that you usually have to purchase in order to experience a dessert at say Le Cirque, for example.  A dessert at Le Cirque may cost $10-14 but it really costs $80-150 since that is what it costs to have a meal there.

Anyway, the “Truck” ceased operations last year and now sits in the Smithsonian institution (well, not really but it should).  Last week they finally opened Works on Clinton St. where they are trying to run a similar same model, sans truck, and offering plated desserts for $6.

For the plated desserts I tried the chocolate truffle cake with praline crunch and the brioche doughnut holes with Nutella filling.  The truffle cake packed the strongest flavors of the visit.  The cake had very rich, flavorful dark chocolate, particularly on top, and the praline crunch on the inside reminded me of the Oreo-cookie-like-crunch found in Carvel ice cream cakes (go here to see one of Carvel’s trippy TV ads from the 80′).

The brioche doughnut holes with Nutella filling were previously offered out of the truck but for some reason I never tried them.  I have tasted many variations of this dessert in NYC and the unique thing about the Work’s version is that their dough is impossibly light and airy.  You can hardly hold them as they cave in on themselves.  They are so light, I recommend ordering a second (or 3rd or 4th) dessert if you want to feel really full.  These are served piping hot and are perfect for the cold winter NYC is experiencing now.  The tasty Nutella filling gets runny when heated so don’t expect a custard like thickness when you bit into them.

I also tried 3 different whoopie pies, mint chocolate chip, olive oil honey and thyme and double chocolate.  As most of you who read this site know, I almost always gravitate towards the chocolate option when items come in multiple flavors.  In this case, I really liked the honey and thyme.  It just had a really unique flavor profile and the flavors were very subtle.  I could have eaten a half dozen of these things (they would go great with some dessert wine). The whoopie pies were all very fresh tasting and by fresh tasting I mean not dry which everyone knows is the kiss of death and very common in whoopie pies.  The mint chocolate chip also had great flavors that I am not used to detecting in a whoopie pie.

When you visit, don’t worry about which of the 6 plated desserts to order or what’s most popular, just go with your gut. You will not be disappointed.  Dessert Truck Works is located at 6 Clinton St.  For a Google map go here.

Dessert Truck | No Comments »

Everyone knows that you can get a killer burger, delicious blood sausage and tasty pigs head at DBGB.  But did you know they will hand blow-torch a showy, baked Alaska right at your table?   Yup!  DB doesn’t mess around when it comes to desserts and neither does his pastry chef Myriam Eberhardt.

Given Mr Boulud and DBGB’s Pastry Chef Myriam Ebehardt’s French roots I decided to go with the Souffle.  The “Imperial Mandarin Souffle with creme anglaise” to be exact.   It was made to order in 10 minutes and was light and airy and had a fresh orange flavor.  When I cracked into the hot souffle the steam smelled like sugar, orange peels and eggy bread (there is no bread in a souffle!)  The creme anglaise contained specks of vanilla bean and was thick as molasses.  Upon finishing I did not feel full.  Flavor and lightness mark this souffle.

I also strongly recommend the house-made chocolate sorbet.  It was as rich a sorbet as you will find.  It reminded me of an icier version of CapoGiro’s dark chocolate gelato.  Also, one small scoop will not fill you up.

The DBGB web site is here.

DBGB is located at 299 Bowery.

DBGB Kitchen and Bar | 4 Comments »

What can I say DessertBuzz is a softball site.  In 3 years I have never done a takedown-style review.  I have never slammed an obnoxious server.  Usually, if I really dislike a dessert, I just don’t write the review, which is a disservice to my readers.  I really should adopt (read: steal) Zach’s Midtown Lunch system of the “the plus and minus” which, at the end of the review, summarizes what someone who would like the reviewed establishment would say (the +) and what someone who dislikes the establishment would say (the -).

In the case of DB Bistro Moderne I had a great 4-star main course, the wait staff was super pro and friendly but the dessert, while aesthetically  pleasing, was just not that good.  Dammit!  Why didn’t I go with the chocolate moelleux?

First, a few words about the Coq Au Vin with Hen of the Woods mushrooms, bacon and spaetzle.  This was about as close the perfect meal I have had in recent memory.  Sadly no pictures.  I am not going to go into why it was so good since this is DessertBuzz, but lets just say if you like Coq Au vin, get it here.  I will say that my plate was so bare that when the waiter came for it that he joked “I will show this to the chef, the customer didn’t really like the dish, ha, ha”  I told him that if it weren’t for the other patrons in the room, I would have licked the plate completely clean.

The dessert I stupidly chose over the  Moelleux Au Chocolate was the Apple tart tatin with caramel apple mousse and mascarpone ice cream.  The mousse and ice cream  components were both excellent.  The mousse had with a subtle apple flavor and very little sweetness and the mascarpone ice cream was also delicious. Plus,  my companion liked the thin apple slices that the ice cream was served on.  The main focus of this dessert, the apple tart, was where it fell apart.  The apple tart had an uneven firmness.  It wasn’t tender and I didn’t know if it was intended to be soft throughout or what.  It seemed like it could have been served hot but it wasn’t.  It was hard to cut and the cookie underneath shattered when I cut into the apple.

That’s what I get for breaking my own rules about ordering plated desserts. When in doubt, order the most involved chocolate dessert available, it’s usually the best since most people who order dessert gravitate to chocolate.

DB Bistro Moderne’s website is here.

DB Bistro Moderne | 1 Comment »