Pierre Herme. King of the macaron. Godfather of French pastry. This, my friends, is my pastry pilgrimage.
I recently bought the Pierre Herme Macaron book, which has just been translated into English for the first time. It’s pretty ridiculous. As in, awesome. So when we went to Paris there was no question that I had to visit Pierre Herme and try some of his little masterpieces for myself.
His shops are less pastry shops than they are pastry museums. Everything is under glass and everything looks like a work of art.
Each pastry is an amazing creation, packaged and presented in the most meticulous and perfect way.
Each chocolate stands alone of its own merit. Dammit. I should’ve gotten some of those chocolates.
If I’d had the time, money and leisure to buy one of each and sit down to revel in them for hours I would have. But I didn’t. So I opted for something more portable.
The macarons.
I waited till I got back to my hotel room for the night to break into them. So I could enjoy them properly. In private.
I got seven. It wasn’t nearly enough.
The flavors are so clear. They punch you in the face with what they are. The vanilla is overwhelmingly vanilla. The caramel tasted like it came straight from the pot. The chocolate is pure and intense. But the one that stood out, that absolutely stopped me in my tracks was the Cassis. Here’s what I wrote about it on Yelp:
When I bit into the cassis I was feeling a bit blasé about it. “I’m not going to be into this one but I’ll eat it anyway.” I took a bite and moved to put the rest of it down, but literally halfway through my movement I stopped. The flavor- the tart and the tang and the clear punch of the cassis overtook my palate. It was incredible. I spoke, out loud, to no one, “Oh my God.” I wished I’d taken a smaller bite so that I’d have more left to savor. It was an absolute shock. In the absolute best way.
The taste of that macaron is still with me.
I’m so happy I got a chance to go to Pierre Herme. There’s just nothing in the world like a Parisian pastry shop.
And when I go back, I promise, I’m getting one of each.
They look awesome!