Jacques Genin

Jacques Genin Review

Master chocolatier-pâtissièr Jacques Genin deserves the legion d'honneur for his efforts to restore great traditional French pastries to their classic form, particularly the august mille-feuille. Genin's stripped-down version disposes with the usual bells and whistles—fresh fruit, custard, chocolate—to achieve a scintillating clarity: layers of lightly caramelized pâte feuilletée, a buttery puff pastry, and an ethereal, barely sweet pastry cream in either vanilla, caramel, or praline. All of the glorious pastries in this tearoom, chocolate boutique, and pastry shop (probably the most beautiful in Paris, by the way) are available for takeaway, but this one is assembled to order and is best eaten fresh on the premises. Along with a cup of Genin's bittersweet hot chocolate, well, you get the picture. Oh, yes, and then there are the chocolates, some of Paris's finest.