Nicolas Cloiseau x Frédéric Bau: the new Maison du Chocolat patisserie

In a desire to affirm the taste of chocolate and highlight its pastry-making expertise, La Maison du Chocolat is expanding its collection of pastries. Following in the footsteps of his work on the chocolate of tomorrow, Nicolas Cloiseau, in collaboration with Frédéric Bau, is pushing his convictions further by giving pride of place to Pures Origines, highlighting their typicity and the gourmandise essential to pleasure. Using the house's signature ganache as the basis for their creations, the two chefs rethink patisserie.

How did you get the idea of working together?

Nicolas Cloiseau: I've been working for a long time with perfumers, nutritionists, scientists and chefs-in-residence. Alone, we go fast, but with two, we go further! For this collaboration with Frédéric, what interested me was to cross-fertilize our respective work: I on plants and well-being, and he on reasoned gourmet pleasure. The aim was to mutually enrich each other's ideas for a new range of cakes and affirm our pastry-making expertise.

Frédéric Bau: We've been working in the same group for a long time, but we didn't really know each other. La Maison du Chocolat approached me to rethink its range of pastries, sharing my vision of reasoned indulgence. That's how we met.

How did you develop the pastry collection?

N.C.: My aim was to expand our cake collection without touching the éclairs or macaroons. For the collection of six individual cakes, our starting point with Frédéric was to star the icons of La Maison - Salvador, Guayaquil, Jolika, Noir de Cassis, Figaro and Caracas - while building on one of our fundamentals: ganache. It is also the basis for our four new choux pastries and our new chocolate tart.

F.B. : The main ingredient had to remain chocolate - it's a hallmark of the Maison du Chocolat - so I was given carte blanche to twist the pairings with audacity. Of course, we chose remarkable chocolates, Pures Origines such as Bélize, Madagascar chocolate from the Millot plantation, and Hukambi half-dark-half-milk chocolate. In keeping with our "gourmandise raisonnée" approach, our mousses are egg-free and butter-free, and our "elixirs" allow us to push the flavors to the limit. I've developed highly identifiable square molds in which a cavity containing the elixir is integrated.

Laurent Rouvrais

How did you work together?

N.C.: Prior to our collaboration, we drew up precise specifications highlighting the five singularities we were looking for: pure origins, starring the House's icons, twisting cakes with a touch of originality, working on contrasting textures and doing better with less to respond to today's desire to eat better. In my work with Frédéric, gluten-free was the obvious choice for all six cakes, while the butter- and egg-free mousses and Pures Origines allowed us to liberate the taste of the chocolate and give it greater length in the mouth.

F.B.: We talked a lot with Nicolas, tasting each creation and working on the balance and taste harmony of the recipes. For example, we chose Label Rouge rice flour for the gluten-free pastries. While respecting the fundamentals of La Maison du Chocolat, the elixir I imagined twists the house taste: violet for the blackcurrant, cinnamon-mandarin for the Jolika and so on.

What did you bring each other?

N.C .: It was an enlightening collaboration. I learned from his vision of gourmandise raisonnée, and it also reinforced my conviction that a pastry, whatever you do, must above all remain gourmet. The most important thing when creating a cake is to make people want to come back for more.

F.B.: Nicolas taught me the importance of reflection and patience. I was nourished by his phlegm. He's an extremely accurate taster, which enabled us to create the aromatic combinations we liked. He taught me to be in correlation with the Maison du Chocolat, while I pushed the tastes to create singular, distinctive, recognizable flavors. It's very rare for me to do a 4-hander in this way.

This collection can be discovered until March 20, 2024 in an exclusive pop-up store, located at 14 rue de Bretagne in the 3ᵉ arrondissement of Paris, before being found in all boutiques from March 21, 2024.