paris patisseries.

knowing my love for all things frenchie.

and my appreciation for absolutely beautiful things.

and my impossibly huge obsession with over indulgent sweet treats.

it only seemed natural that adam, of paris patisseries, and i should be friends.

if for no other reason than for the utter enjoyment of

living vicariously through him throughout his tour of pleasures.

you see, adam, lives a sugar-loving, france-loving girls dream come true.

he travels around paris simply to try out all of the patisseries.

literally, eating his way through the parisian streets.

i am having a terribly challenging time controlling my envy.

but for the sake of sharing this post, i will try to compose myself.

i started following adam's culinary adventures several months ago,

and i am beyond intrigued by his learnings. his writings. his tastings.

adam so generously agreed to interview with me.

and so i am here to share his story.

before we begin,

you may want to grab a box of chocolates to nibble on.

your sweet tooth with thank you for diffusing a bit of the sugar envy.

meet adam.

it all started back in 2009.

an ex and i had gone on a trip to paris.

she was a pastry chef, so i thought it would be great to check out

as many patisseries and chocolateries as we could.

but it turned out, i enjoyed it more than she.

we ended up calling it quits the following month.

so i booked a three month long return trip back to paris.

just wanted to get away from things back home.

i had no intention of a blog at that point.

i just planned on roving around europe.

and then an idea came to mind.

a pastry-a-day.

so i whipped up a blog site & planned to catalog one pastry everyday

for the three months i would be there.

but soon enough the idea morphed into a bigger idea.

buy & photograph three or four pastries each day.

that way i had enough material for a year of blog entries.

and that is exactly what i wound up doing.

moderation is obviously not my thing.

{said with a wink}

i have no training at all in culinary skills.

and i can't imagine that anyone with serious skills would ever openly

critique chefs in the manner that i do.

unless they wanted to sabotage his own career.

it takes an outsider to provide the level of honesty that i give.

however, now that i have become friendly with so many of the chefs,

i have a hard time writing anything negative.

i now try to only review the best pieces from each shop.

while i do not have culinary training,

i do love to bake.

both of my parents are extreme bakers.

my mother loves to hand arrange the pecans in her pecan pies so that

they form perfect, concentric circles.

and my father bakes his own birthday cake.

i am certain their love for baking has rubbed off on me.

i love to bake it all. cookies. cakes. breads. its all great.

but my real passion is waffles.

so, after i am done with the pastry site, waffles are going to be my focus.

i hope to integrate much of what i have experienced in the

french pastry scene with my crazy waffle fixation.

before i started this venture,

i had to do a lot of research about where to visit.

in fact, that was a big catalyst in why i started the blog.

almost every travel guide & website mentions the same four shops.

laduree. storher. pierre herme. gerald mulot.

but the reality is, only two of those,

pierre herme & laduree,

are actually off the charts good.

there are atleast a dozen other

amazing patisseries that nobody has ever heard of.

and i wanted to create a greater wisdom about what is the "best."

of all the many pastry shops in paris,

i always recommend people visit jacques genin.

he focuses on the great classics,

so it is a great place to start your french pastry experience.

monsieur genin's eclair au chocolate is

arguably the finest in all of paris.

monsieur genin's baba au rhum is also amazing.

then there are his caramels. pates de fruits. & chocolates.

all of which are incredible.

a few of my other favorites are the following.

the pomme tatin from des gateaux et du pain.

the macaron mangue from hugo & victor.

and finally, the tarte caramel sale from sadaharu aoki.

everyone always ask about macarons.

the great debate.

who makes the best macaron? and why are theirs the best?

it is hard for me to say who makes the best in paris.

there are atleast three or four different styles, and each has their strength.

for me, the best seem to have fairly strong flavors

that are a little out of the ordinary.

like poppy flowers. russian cranberries. or kaffir limes.

they also tend to use an italian meringue for the shell.

they have just the right amount of filling.

meither too much, nor too little.

that is a hard balance to strike.

le macaron violette.

le macaron coquelicot. poppy flower.

le macaron fleur dorager.

le macaron fraise coeur pistache.

i certainly know i am living the dream.

exploring paris. eating dessert for breakfast. lunch. and dinner.

but there is a down side.

i gain about six pounds a month.

even though i walk everywhere & anywhere.

so, in my breaks back in the united states, i am on a strict diet.

i'm terribly sorry, adam.

this girl does not feel bad for you one little bit.

and i don't know about you all,

but i would love to try each one of those treats.

something tells me i could get used to eating sweet treats everyday.

please do hop on over to adam's blog to follow his day-to-day.

it is facsinating to learn about all the different patisseries.

merci. merci. merci, adam.

this was certainly quite a treat.

{all images courtesy of paris patiiseries}

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