I’d been reading Anthony Bourdain’s Medium Raw last week and got a good laugh out of him calling The Food Network “The Empire of Mediocrity”. It’s sad that people submit to Rachel Ray mooking her way through a no-bake cheesecake with store-bought graham cracker crusts or that they take the hacks of Cupcake Wars as anything more than a joke. America is, on the whole, a culinary cesspool of tragically plebian tastes. And while France is the gold standard – light years ahead of the U.S. – there’s still a very mediocre thread running through even some of the finer shops. Hum-drum ingredient quality, played-out compositions, and tiresomely unoriginal flavors leave much to be desired. Fortunately, shops like Hugo & Victor continue to elevate the game and redefine the standards of excellence.

Even if we just look at H&V’s three staple flavors – chocolate, vanilla and caramel – there’s more than meets the eye. The Hugo Chocolat weaves in lime and tonka beans. Both the Hugo Vanille and Victor Vanille contain a dreamy mélange of vanillas from all around the world. And the Hugo Caramel marries fine milk chocolate with caramel cream, sablée, liquid caramel and macadamia nuts. The ordinary is, at least in part, extraordinary. Then there are the seasonal flavors and compositions, like the subject of today’s review, the Hugo Framboise. Let’s dig in.

The piece is clearly dominated by huge, dazzlingly ripe raspberries, which taste at least twice as good as they look. Ratcheting up their delights even further is a potently framboise’d palet of raspberry mousse I could eat by the pint, if given the opportunity. As for the rest . . . it gets a bit drowned out. Those swirls of almond-imbued crème add a pleasant touch, but I didn’t feel they made a substantive mark on the texture and flavor, given that they had to go up against so much raspberry in every bite. The crème was delicious, but it felt like more of a garnish than a player in the overall experience. The same could be said for the almond Dacquoise base. It’s excellent, with a lovely feel and delicate finish, but I think it had too much to compete against. Then there’s the white chocolate . . .

I love dark chocolate. I love milk chocolate. I love white chocolate (which, yes, is “chocolate” – feel free to email me if you need this one explained). If you looked in my cupboard right now, you’d probably find 30 or 40 bars of one or the other. I am, as you should know, a huge chocolate snob. So it should be no surprise I find pastries that contain tempered sheets and rounds of chocolate to be more than a little troublesome. Most pastries are kept cold, and cold chocolate is, with exceedingly rare exception, not pleasant to eat. Who wants to eat cold chocolate? Yes, it’s “ok” to eat cold chocolate candy, as many do. But why chill fine chocolate? Only when it’s at room temperature is it ready to have its flavors and textures fully enjoyed. It’s also very awkward to eat any pastry that contains tempered chocolate; the texture completely clashes with everything else in it, and it can be very messy, if not impossible, to eat. This is not a criticism of this piece from Hugo & Victor; it’s meant as a criticism of all such pastries everywhere in the world. I feel bad so directly criticizing Hugues’s decision here, but he knows how much I love his work, so I’ll cross my fingers he doesn’t get too irritated with me over it.

Seeing the Hugo Framboise here as a verrine would be nice. I think that would allow the crème and Dacquoise to be played-up a bit more. Or perhaps a Charlotte would be the way to go. While its current incarnation is aesthetically great, and while the taste of each element (except for the white chocolate, by virtue of its temperature) is phenomenal, I would love to see a more balanced use of the flavors and textures.

Since “what you see is what you get”, there’s nothing to reveal as a cross-section, so here’s an aerial view. Very neatly assembled. Thumbs up, team . . .

So, no, I can’t really recommend this – not because it isn’t tasty, original and lovely to admire, but because I think it could be executed in a way that could make far better use of the constituent elements. Its little sister, the Victor Framboise, would be my recommendation when you find yourself in the mood for raspberries chez Hugo & Victor. There are also another dozen treats in the shop you can fall in love with, so promise me you’ll still visit and indulge.

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