At Le Meurice, Cédric Grolet's incredibly ornate edible wonders find a fitting home
The light drizzle falling from the gray Paris sky has’t stopped a crowd of people from lining up at 6 Rue de Castiglione, the site of the new pastry boutique at Le Meurice. The well-dressed group will be some of the first to try the artful creations of world-renowned chef Cédric Grolet.
Overhead, “La Vie en Rose” plays, bringing a romantic-as-hell classic feeling to the otherwise contemporary shop. Grolet, who was named World’s Best Restaurant Pastry Chef by Les Grandes Tables du Monde last year, worked with the French architects’ collective Ciguë to build out the minimalist space. The 32-year-old’s very first brick-and-mortar pâtisserie is stark white with a cracked black stone floor, golden accent shelves and glass domes encasing his precious pastries. The aroma of the room is warmly intoxicating. In crisp white uniforms, the staff wraps up gallery-worthy baked items like brioche dough bundt cakes and madeleines.
From an early age, Grolet was drawn to pastry for many reasons. “The physical side, the color side, always having the ability to create,” he says. “I think it’s a creative job. That means there’s always a possibility to challenge its work and raise the level. Since I was little, I thought that there is always something better to do.”
Like an artist, the chef draws ideas from the world around him. “I take inspiration of everything that surrounds me,” says Grolet, who names pastry king and chocolatier Pierre Hermé as one of his role models. “Fashion, cars, colors, architecture, museums, travels—most of all, travels. The cultures of all the different countries in which I travel, all that I see, there are no fixed things in fact.”
The result of this constant absorption are incredibly ornate edible wonders that are presented on marble at the new shop (and also online if you can’t try them IRL). After braving the quick-moving line, you’ll want to sample some of Grolet’s greatest hits. “Hazelnut, Lemon, Rubik’s cake, apple pie, Saint-Honoré,” he recommends, “because they are known and because people recognize me in relation to these cakes.”
To Grolet, the difference between working on the sweet versus the savory side of a kitchen is different but not more or less difficult. “I think that every job in the world has advantages and disadvantages,” he says, “but in the end, we all have the same aim: to make the customer happy.”
With his new project, Grolet hopes to bring not only decadent joy to the public, but an education as well. “First of all, I want to raise awareness of people who come in the boutique to make them aware of the work on a pastry,” he says. “That’s why there is no showcase and the cakes are made day to day in the pastry [boutique]. Then I try to give the possibility to people who can not enter a palace, to have a Cédric Grolet pastry on the table.” The chef hopes to highlight the constant search for quality and freshness in his craft, something immediately apparent to anyone who walks into the hyper-professional operation.
I ask Grolet for the secret to being a good pastry chef—and it turns out that it has little do with butter or flour.
“First of all, you must be curious,” he answers, “because a chef who thinks he knows everything does not improve himself anymore. So in my point of view, it’s curiosity about what’s going on, being open-minded about the team that always has something to bring—negative or positive.” He points out the importance of surrounding oneself with solid people, from the kitchen to the administrative aspects of his life. “The team, the communication department, Clément [Leveau, his personal assistant], all these persons who work with me make me evolve,” he says. “It’s extremely important and to stay yourself too, because it can quickly go to the head. I think that before anything else you have to stay yourself.”
Le Meurice’s Pastry Boutique by Cédric Grolet, 6 Rue de Castiglione 75001, Paris is open Tuesday to Sunday from 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm. 01 44 58 10 10.