Fauchon, Paris

How many times have I wished for a Fauchon in the US? Many. Fauchon is an anomaly, it is luxurious fast food. Imagine the speed of McDonald’s with the taste of a high end french bistro. There was one in NYC but it shut down.

Fauchon is like Sephora in the way it is merchandised- crackers and cookies are organized into the most seductive little packages and chocolates look like CD cases. The minute I walk in I want to buy a million things… Whoever merchandised Fauchon is a genius. You will walk in spending more money than you want to.

The most satifsying color, ever.

Packages of chocolate almost look like CD cases. At this moment I felt like I was in Virgin Records.

There are 2 Fauchon shops in Paris, one for savory prepared foods and cakes, and the other for canned + preserved foods, biscuits and chocolate. Individual lunches are pre-packaged in a very meticulous fashion. Customers can grab whatever they want. Another great thing is that counter tops are slightly lower than normal sized countertops which makes the food easy to access and look at.

Not what you normally expect in packaged foods.

This was before my trip to Villeneuve sur Yonne, I got some lunches, cakes and snacks to eat during my stay.

Packaged eclairs, these do not sit behind a blocked off glass refridgerator where you have to ask for it, you can just grab these and put it in your metal basket supermarket style. This is what I love about Fauchon, the freedom to grab whatever you want without having to ask. This one was a savory eclair with a pear sauce topped with radishes and filled with a salmon chive cream.

Monalisa eyes printed on a thin piece of chocolate.

Packaging for terrines, in France terrines are very popular. This looks like makeup packaging to me. Love it.

Vegetable terrine, this was so good, texture was like a very firm mousse.

Baby salami.

Once again, gorgeous packaging and fresh ingredients, freshly sliced ham.

Fauchon is also known for their creative cakes and pastries.

Rose & Raspberry macaron.

Lots of food bloggers attempt the difficult “macaron” recipe, but don’t let that fool you into thinking a macaron is D-I-Y territory. I won’t bother with macarons no matter how determined I am because it is just one of those things that is near impossible to do unless you’ve had years of training, and there’s nothing worse than eating an inferior macaron. The only way to convince anyone that a macaron is perfectly structured is when you cut it in half- anyone can fake a perfect macaron (lots of macarons can come out looking nice with perfect feet and structure, but the inside could be dried and cracker-like), but the truth lies in how tender and moist it is inside. You can try and make macarons at home but you’ll have to go through a million carton of egg whites before you get it right, it is just cheaper to buy perfectly made ones in my opinion. This macaron was indeed perfect, crust was crumbly to the touch, look at how thin it is.

Raspberry and pistachio tart.

Perfectly crafted lemon and mango tart. This one looks like a Josef Albers painting.

Chocolate Dome Cake.

This is the most delicious and gorgeous cake I’ve had (even by Payard standards, sorry Payard!), I am not a huge fan of uber decorative floral cakes, this is a very flat cake that is only 1″ in height, though it looks simple to decorate the craftsmanship of this is impeccable and hard to achieve (again this is no D-I-Y). Look at how sharp the cake corners are. Usually the simpler a design is, the more difficult it is to make, you can’t hide mistakes or fudge anything. There is no hiding ugly exposed cake seams with kitschy fondant flowers here!

Travel posts are coming to a halt soon to those who are eager to see me bend over backwards… I have been back for a while now and those days of frolicking in the streets of Ischia are long gone (Hello to Silvana from Ischia!). I’ll be posting normal stuff shortly, but it was so so nice NOT to post anything that I created myself, I had to take a little break. Fret not to anyone who has missed the “old” posts, I’ve been in the studio working late nights!