Hugues Pouget & The Hugo Caramel
By Paris Pâtisseries in Hugo & Victor, Pastry Reviews, Uncategorized
Get the latest entries instantly with Paris Patisseries on Facebook
More fun than eating one of the great pastries of Paris is having 2003 Champion de France du Dessert, Hugues Pouget, make it for you. It tastes ten times as delicious that way. So today that’s exactly what we’re going to do – have Monsieur Pouget custom-craft his famous Hugo Caramel for us. I should give a little context though . . .
As I neared the end of my last 3 months in Paris, a reader tipped me off to a new shop I hadn’t explored: Hugo & Victor. Those of you who follow me know I quickly fell in love with them. But with only two weeks left to my stay, I had to get my relationship with the shop moving quickly, if I wanted to do a shoot. Thanks to the very cool H&V saleswoman, Carmen, I got a meeting with co-owner, Sylvain Blanc, within a few days of my first visit. An awesome in-store shoot ensued (check that out on March 11), and tentative plans were made to do an in-kitchen session with the maestro himself, Hugues Pouget. The problem was that he was in the U.S. and deep into a series of consulting gigs. There was only a sliver of overlap between his return and my departure. So, after much emailing, we nailed-down about 30 minutes – less than 24 hours before my takeoff!
The photos that follow were done quickly, so excuse the absence of my usual OCD fixation on focus and detail. Still cool as **** though . . .
With everything in place, Hugues gently warmed some chocolate in the microwave. It was to serve as the delicious “glue” that held the piece together. Following a quick squirt of it to the sable disk you see in the foreground, he gingerly affixed both a ring and a hemisphere of milk chocolate…
Another quick squirt of chocolate and a few macadamia nuts were ready to be put in place at the bottom of our sweet little cup. Because, really, having some fun crunchy texture hidden within something that’s about to become so abundantly gooey is a brilliant touch, n’est-ce pas?
Then, out came the pastry bag engorged with caramel crème. Swirl after swirl were laid down before me. It was all I could do not to rip it out of his hand and begin piping it directly into my mouth.
I love the shot below. Hugues just whipped out the heat gun, using it to slowly warm the counter, while shooting the **** with me. Then he quickly reached for another hemisphere, ran it around in circles on the counttop for a few seconds and popped it right into place, to form the full globe. He was so adept at lining it up perfectly that my lens didn’t even have time to focus on him putting it in place.
As a nice little garnish, Hugues proceeded to freeze his nuts on. No, not “freeze his nuts off”; he had to freeze them on. After dipping the macadamia nuts in a little chocolate, he held them to the side of the orb and gave them each an icy blast.
A little gold leaf got put oh-so-carefully into place…
And I didn’t expect that the copper dust would be applied this way, but Hugues got that pastry brush loaded up with the sparkly goodness and huffed and puffed, albeit very gently and with all the finesse of a French Champion.
A quick turn, and there it was – the Hugo Chocolat…
And here’s the chef himself, Hugues Pouget, smiling alongside his creation, which he showcases like a fine jewel – behind glass and a complex laser alarm system. Let’s give him a round of applause, before we continue.
Since the fluorescent glare of any working kitchen isn’t the best lighting for showing off the subtleties of fine pastry, here are the detail shots you expect from yours truly. Lets take a closer look as those lovely nuts and gold leaf . . .
And can’t you just taste that base? Butterly deliciousness…
Even I’m not sure how I managed to cut this open so neatly, but welcome to the caramel crème cave, my friends!
Now, I’m serious when I say you’re going to want to visit the site here frequently in the weeks ahead. Friday I’m going to show off some AMAZING caramel macarons from Pain de Sucre. Monday is a Valentine’s Day special feature – Ladurée’s Saint-Honoré Rose. And next Friday?! That’s when we go into the kitchen with Carl Marletti, as he creates his Marie Antoinette just for us! There’s going to be a special chocolate feature this Wednesday, too. There’s just so much going on.
If you’re not already getting email updates, get on the Paris Patisseries email update list now. Or follow Paris Patisseries on Facebook. You deserve the best of Paris.
