In Paris, where the opening of a new haute patisserie is an event, there’s reason to celebrate this week. Le Meurice, the Dorchester Collection’s palace hotel on Rue de Rivoli, has announced that star pastry chef Cédric Grolet will open a boutique on March 20—just in time for the spring season. Patisserie is having a moment in Paris. In recent years, it’s catapulted into the spotlight as a culinary art form, with elaborate sugary creations admired like haute couture. And Cédric Grolet is at the top of his game. Named World's Best Restaurant Pastry Chef by Les Grandes Tables du Monde in 2017, the young, 32-year-old chef is revered as one of the top patissiers in Paris.
If you’ve ever had Afternoon Tea at Le Meurice (we highly recommend), you know that pastry chefs circulate with trays of piping hot madeleines, sweetened with honey, right out of the oven. These classics will be available at the new pastry shop, alongside cookies, brioche dough Bundt cakes, and more elaborate creations like the famous trompe-l'oeil sculpted fruits. You’ll also be able to order desserts for four to eight people (with 48 hours' notice).
Cédric Grolet is a veteran of Fauchon, the gourmet emporium on Place de la Madeleine that’s been a laboratory for the best pastry chefs in
the business, including Christophe Adam, the man behind L'Eclair de génie and Dominic Ansel, creator of the cronut, in New York. Grolet
Le Meurice's Pastry Boutique by Cédric Grolet, located at 6 rue de Castiglione in the 1st arrondissement, will be open Tuesday to Sunday
starting at noon.