507711655-Opera-Patisserie-Cedric-Grolet-1

OPERA PATISSERIE.
With this book, I’m turning a page. Fruits, my first book, was a book
of persnickety recipes, fancy patisserie requiring technique,
precision, and excellence. OPERA PATISSERIE marks my entry into
a new world, that of the bakery-patisserie. More radical, the new way
of baking that I describe in this book aims to get as close as possible
to the product. The desserts and creations that I include in this book
contain neither preservatives nor colorants. I wanted to remove as
many steps as possible in their production to get as close as
possible to the product, its texture, freshness, and taste. The breads,
like the pastries, have been designed so that anyone can make them
easily at home. The frozen fruits, which are made with very little
sugar and churned at the last minute, make you feel like you are
eating actual fruits. The other recipes, whether sweet entremets,
cookies, or desserts prepared at the last minute, always focus on a
single flavor to bring out its full potential. At the time of its release,
Fruits encapsulated a resolutely modern technicality and the
patisserie of the future. OPERA PATISSERIE is the patisserie of
yesterday and today, taking a step backward to get back to basics.
The most important thing for me now is to seek authenticity.
This reflects my new approach as a pastry chef: Going back to the
bare bones. With my team, we are constantly working on new
recipes and calling things into question to seek the purest taste,
while respecting seasonality.
The simplification of my patisserie also involves a reduction of
resting and freezing times to finally be able to enjoy an “in the
moment” tasting.
I’ve been aware of my need to emancipate myself from what I have
been doing at Le Meurice for several years. It’s not a question of
changing for the better, but of working on another angle and creating
a different universe. What could be more obvious than the idea of
opening a new establishment? A new creative space that will allow
me to show consumers a new way of looking at pastry, a way that is
more pure and raw.