When pastry chefs get involved in the Olympic Games

Mathieu Dubus | 7/30/24, 9:09 AM

As the Olympic flame ended its journey opposite the Louvre Museum on July 26, 2024, all trades are working hard to make their Games a success. Here's a taste of their Olympic collections.

The Olympic Games and their events are in full swing after months of preparation. A preparation in which the culinary professions have taken a major share of the cake. Indeed, beyond the athletes, the Olympiad is an opportunity for 10 million tourists to discover France's heritage, in which the world of gastronomy plays an essential role. Now is the time to discover the gourmet collections of two pastry houses partnering the event. The two offers are unique, one focusing on fruit and the other on chocolate.

Two unique collections

The pastry houses that have been able to collaborate with the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are Ladurée and La Maison du Chocolat. Each offer has its own identity. Ladurée offers one tartelette and one macaron per period. The house has opted for the fruit that its executive chef, Julien Alvarez, wanted to be "as fresh as possible, without altering the fact that it's a generous, gourmet pastry". You'll find: the mango-cardamom macaroon and tartelette for the Olympic period, and the lime-ginger flavor for the Paralympic period.

According to Julien Alvarez, the challenge of this collaboration concerned the formats: "We couldn't possibly bring a touch of originality to them, so we had to be very good students". As for the creation of the pastries, "on the tasting part, the validation was done only on the visual, on the taste, they trusted us completely." Finally, there was the question of the choice of fragrance, here too "we were really free. There were two possibilities, either we worked on something very French, or we made a universal choice, and it was the latter option that we chose, in order to speak to as many people as possible" explains Ladurée's Executive Chef.

Pierre Monetta

For its part, La Maison du Chocolat has opted for a range of cocoa-based products "to suit all consumption moments and desires", explains Nicolas Cloiseau, Meilleur Ouvrier de France chocolatier for the Parisian brand. The range comprises five distinct elements: a chocolate mascot, two amuse-bars (milk chocolate for the Paralympics and dark chocolate for the Olympics), an art deco box and a "look of the game" box. The collection from the chef with the tricolored collar has a distinctive feature. It revolves around the desire to have long-lasting products that ship well, so that they can be found in the four corners of the globe.

Laurent Rouvrais

Free olfactory creation

In parallel with these two official collections under the aegis of the Olympic rings, macaroon master Pierre Hermé has just unveiled brand-new "Fair-Play" creations in tribute to the sporting summer that awaits the citizens of France and the world. New products to discover.

Laurent Fau

The first product: the "enchanted garden tart", made with almond, lime and Espelette pepper cream and fresh raspberry. This collection is accompanied by a range of ice creams in a variety of flavors, including macaron infiniment, vanilla, jardin de Sicile and café iapar. All designed by Quentin Monge, who transforms macaroons into barbells, footballs and even tennis balls.

Last but not least, Alléno and Rivoire chocolates have recently launched a brand-new collection called "Paris-Brest". In addition to the eponymous delicacy, this tricolored collection includes a chocolate bar with hazelnut puffed rice and orange confit.

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