Sadaharu Aoki :: Tarte Caramel Salé
By Paris Pâtisseries in Pastry Reviews, Sadaharu Aoki
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When I drafted my Top 17 Best Pastries list last summer, it wasn’t too difficult to single-out those 17 from the 300 or so I ate, but it was tricky to rank them relative to one another. An orange blossom macaron is a totally different animal than a strawberry millefeuille or a candied rose croissant. So it became a delicate calculus of originality vs. flavors vs. textures vs. how much I could believe that mortal man had actually crafted a particular piece, as opposed to creation by Divine intervention. Notably, the top 7 of the 17 were decided purely on that last factor.
It’s no shocker that Sadaharu Aoki was going to be heavily represented in any Best of Parisian Pastries list. After all, the man is a pastry genius. He managed to snag the #16 spot with his black sesame éclair, and he grabbed the #11 position with his Cheesecake Citron. But of all his work, the one earning the highest honor was the above Tarte Caramel Salé, which clocked-in at the #4 position. For lovers of caramel and milk chocolate, I can safely say this is your fantasy pastry.
Words aren’t going to do this justice. But just imagine buttery, sticky-sweet caramel sublimely accented with Guérande fleur de sel. It’s soft. It’s supple. It’s rolling around your tongue and giving you an instant sugar rush, while its exquisite caramel tones get intermittently tweaked to 11 on the 0-10 scale, dialed-up in intensity by that Guérande salt. The flavors fall away for a second, as feather-weight milk chocolate crème teases you papillae, then smudges them with its cocoa-dusted skin. A wave of amer chocolate hits you, before the caramel charges back in, only to be taken over moments later by one of the most crum’buttery sablés you’re ever to experience. A tear rolls down your cheek, as you become aware you’ve never truly tasted milk chocolate and caramel together until now. Life might seem cruel, if not for the fact that you instantly dissolve back into the splendor of this absolute masterwork of pastry.
I definitely play up the desciptions of many of the patissieries I feature here on the site, but rest assured that any pastry that made it to #4 on the list is actually more amazing than anything I can write. The tarte will seriously make you feel cheated by virtually any other caramel/chocolate pairing. American and Canadian readers, in particular, will wonder how they can ever eat a Twix bar again. Trust me, that favorite childhood candy tastes like crap for me now.
If I ever get to photograph Monsieur Aoki at work, this is definitely the one piece I’ll request he makes for me. And it won’t be this little guy I have him do; I’ll ask him to craft the monster version than feeds 12 people. Already having pre-starved myself the day of the shoot, I’ll take the whole thing home and down la tarte entière – the whole thing. ****, I’ll even videotape the binge for you so that you can live vicariously.
It’s only a week until this tarte and more can be had at-whim by yours truly! My 3 months in Paris last year feel like an amazing dream, and now I get to relive it . . . but with way more access to the shops, the chefs and their work . . . and for 6 months this time around. I feel like I’m 5-years-old again, and it’s Christmas Eve.
So, yes, do whatever it takes to get your hands on Sadaharu Aoki’s Tarte Caramel Salé. It might just be the finest caramel pastry in Paris. And for lovers of caramel and chocolate, it’s necessary to experience this for your life to be complete.
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