Jacques Genin and the Mille Feuille

Apparently, a regular contender for the best patisseries in Pairs is Jaques Genin, with his star patisserie being the Mille-Feuille. As part of my mum's chocolate-tasting-self-tour, we decided to try it out and see whether the reviews were accurate.

Unfortunately, we arrived at around 4 on a Sunday and the on-site cafe was packed. Instead of waiting in yet another Parisian line, we decided to get them to go. The shop is designed so that it looks like you're in a very high-end luxury goods store...glass cases protect the patisseries and white-gloved servers delicately serve your chocolates or patisseries to you in the most elegant (and only slightly outrageous) manner. This is only heightened by the fact that each Mille-Feuille is made to-order, and carried down a circular staircase from the workshop upstairs, and each patisserie is then boxed individually in a separate perfectly sized carry-away box. I was impressed.

Jacques Genin - Ephemere and Mille Feuille au Caramel

We selected the Mille-Feuille au Caramel and a chocolate (what else!) Ephemere as the second dessert - layers of dark and milk chocolate mousse and praline, topped with a passion-fruit mousse (we had initially tried to get an Opera, but they were all out). Once our Mille-Feuille was whisked down the circular staircase, and our Ephemere specially-boxed, we braved the Metro ride from Republique home (all the while protecting the desserts VERY carefully).

Relish: The Mille-Feuille was AMAZING. I don't even usually like Mille-Feuilles (too much cream normally), but this was incredible. The pastry was phenomenally delicious, crispy, and almost melted in your mouth, while the cream...a soft caramel taste...sigh...sooooo good. The only difficulty was in cutting it and eating it. Because the pastry was so fresh and hadn't been softened by the creme, it made it a bit hard to cut...but I figured it out eventually (use the only sharp knife in our kitchen...who cares if it's massive...).

mmmmm....

The Ephemere was good, but the passion fruit mousse wasn't so much my thing. I separated it from the bottom layers and then the chocolate layers were stupendous!! Oh, and the chocolate siding was also fantastic, delicious and creamy rich dark chocolate.

Quaff: We made a small pot of espresso on the stove with our bialetti espresso machine (which I am in love with). It was a heavenly combination.

Enjoy!