Where Bakers Go to Stock Up

I love going into this cramped, little shop near Les Halles, filled with boxes and bags of Valronha and Callebaut chocolate in pastilles in a range of cacao percentages and flavors, and bricks of pure unsweetened chocolate, too, which I use for my brownies, along with some of the 70 % Callebaut.

You can barely squeeze past the people that come here, all searching for that something that they need to make a cake or a pastry that day, and it’s always fun to watch what other people are buying. I come for the chocolate, the vanilla beans, the almond powder on occasion, and the piment d’Espelette. They’ve got a great selection of dried mushrooms and all sorts of oils, from pistachio to hazelnut, that would make a dull salad stand up and dance.

On my last trip here, I found the organic dried figs and peaches that quickly made their way into my Sticky Toffee Puddings. So you just never know what you’ll find to inspire you here.

G. Detou