Eating French Desserts From The Pâtisserie | Traditional

Tutorial Transcript

I've got one more question for you before I let you go - why can't any other country replicate this?! Salut YouTube I've got a Frenchie with me today Adele because we're gonna do a video about French patisserie and all the delicious things. You've actually been a pastry chef right in New Zealand? Yes so I was in New Zealand for like a year and a half after being in business school doing business jobs and being like I'm just gonna go to New Zealand and start working in a kitchen and then after a few months I was just like I want to actually be a pastry chef and do pastries so I got into this and now I'm back to France and I'm gonna apply to become a pastry chef like having the degree. Oh wow they've got that really hardcore certification what's it called? The basic one CAP patissiere. In France you have to have this qualification if you want to be working in a kitchen as a pastry chef. Okay so business woman by day, pastry chef by night! So we've got a selection, we went to the boulangerie just now so I'm gonna rely on you then because all I know about French pastries as it tastes so damn good but maybe if you could help us understand a little bit more about what what they are, how they're made, what's inside that kind of thing. I think we should get started with the most perhaps the most technical and my absolute favorite okay so this is this is my absolute favorite it comes in a few different styles though. Yeah this is the kind of Parisian, modern form of it. What kind of pastry is that? That's what we call pate feuilletée so that would be your puff pastry in English And it's just like several sheets of that? Yes. Then for the cream you have different kinds but the most common one is the composition so it's just like a cream that every pastry chef uses and it's like custard basically with a type of vanilla flavor usually. It's the hardest thing to cut I'm gonna actually cut it in front of you guys so you can see how ridiculous it is to cut It's impossible, there's no way you can do this in a tidy way. The idea with pastries in France is it basically needs to look really good on the plate before you start to eat it because you need to be willing to eat it and then it's a mess and it's okay! The most important thing is the taste. I love that contrast between the crunchiness and then the cream and it's not too sweet, you know, it's not sickly sweet. That's pretty good that's not my favorite cream but I like the fact that you have the crunchiness and the pastry is a bit brownish yeah so it's actually gives like the difference between the vanila's sweetness and this. I love it. Excellent. Shall we go for the absolute classic? This is pretty renowned worldwide the standard chocolate eclair. They're a bit special I mean we've got chocolate eclairs in New Zealand but they don't taste this good but why? Like what do we do so differently? I don't know, It's too sweet the cream is too fatty, the choux pastry is too thick. Yeah it's really dense pastry. It's just not the same. And this may be a really dumb question to someone like you but how did they get the chocolate in the middle? Let's see this one there's a hole in the bottom. Ahh there's a hole in the bottom and then they inject it. Mmm delicious. It's part of the joy when it gets so messy, you're just like this is just such a pleasure. What would be the best places to go for some patisserie in Paris that would be absolutely legitimate? Ah so you have more and more Pastry Chefs that quite famous in Paris and you can find them in the grands magasins like Galeries Lafayette they have their own pastry shops but there are lots of them and you can actually find them on Instagram quite easily, you look for pastry chef Paris. You have Yann Couvreur, Pierre Marcolini, there's just so many. I'll put them down below and we'll put your Instagram down below also so that people can follow your journey because you're gonna obviously be in training and like becoming a chef yourself so that's kind of exciting we'll be able to see all of your creations. Moving on so this is quite a summery one but they still serve it So what do we have here as a base? That's what we call your shortbread but from Brittany and we would call it a sable Breton. And then you have creme patissiere again and then the fresh raspberries. For these kind of pastries like the tartelettes you can have anything, the basics is that it needs to be a pastry that is quite sweet and crunchy and then some cream and then the fruit so the idea with all of those is to have all the textures and flavours, it has to be tart and sweet and that's the thing. The next question is like how do you get it in your mouth?! The raspberries are going out of season a bit so they're a little bit tart but it's still delicious. It just absolutely fascinates me how you can walk around the street and there's bakery after bakery after bakery just full of the most beautiful things like how does that work in reality? People getting up at 6:00 a.m. and preparing everything for the day or do they buy it in boxes? They start working at 2.00am because they open at 6.30am or 7.00am It depends on the products they have as well, they can end up having frozen products because it's actually really good it's just like "but I wanted my own pastry chef"! Usually the breads gonna be fresh, it's just the pastry So next one. What's that shiny stuff on it? That's what we call nappage neutre just like sugar water and some gelatine just to make it shiny. I mean it's obviously not the sexiest, fanciest thing you've ever seen but it's something that's really common I find in France at least in partners family whenever his grandma or his cousins or his mom or whatever make a cake they often use fruit it's often fruit base so they'll make a cherry cake, a pear cake, fruit and nut seem to be very very popular in cakes in France and I used to think that it was not really a cake it's too healthy! But a birthday cake could actually look like this it could be a big cake with pear on it for example and I was like that's not a birthday cake! For me a birthday cake is this tall pure chocolate iced in chocolate with like lollies all over it sparklers you know it's like that American style I guess. Yeah and I actually make those cakes and when I show them to my French friend they're like hmm oh no I don't want this! So the last one we have is the absolute classic and it's very beautiful tartelette au citron what's interesting about this one is it's like a big dome shape which is unusual, you often have the burnt meringue on top, a tarte au citron meringuee which is a bit different but we only found a naked one today. How did they make this? How does it have such a strong taste of citron? Ah so it's kind of in between creme patissiere and lemon curd. But they have a bit of maybe lemon rind? So we've got some lemon juice and you infuse it with lemon zest as well so that's how you get it but then what is really hard it's that it's one of the French's favourite tarts but they're also really critical about it because it's really hard to find the right balance but also everyone's taste buds re different What are you looking for? Like a a balance of sweetness and and sour? Yeah. By the way this is the best video ever to make. This is good! It is? Okay noted, my local boulangerie has a good tarte au citron. And you have the sourness in the throat. Okay so one last question for you before I let you go - why can't any other country replicate this? I asked that to my chef in New Zealand because I was like I don't understand, I love it so much, why can't we do the same? There are different things, first of all ingredients, and then you actually have to adapt to the local taste so that's the sad thing. In my restaurant I wanted to change the lemon tart I wanted it to be more tarty, less creamy so there's more taste and they were like oh no no it won't work here. It's like in the luxury industry as well with the handbags and that kind of thing I feel like there's knowledge that just has been passed down through generations and generations and they've got this word in French which is metier like you have the metier which is not really translatable but it's around having a sort of craft, a craftsmanship that's almost been transmitted and I feel like, I mean that's obviously why the French are so great at wine, patisserie, food, luxury everything! If I ever move away from France, this will bring me back! Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us, I'll link Adele's Instagram down below so that you can go and follow her journey - I know I will - and otherwise if you guys have any requests for other foods that you'd like me to tackle let me know down below and I'll see you guys in the next video à bientôt, bye!