After 21 years in Paris, David Lebovitz had devoured all the baked goodies. His favorite bakeries are Tout Autour Du Pain for croissants and Mamiche for babka.
Visitors to Paris this summer may have Olympics fever, but no vacation is complete without eating its delicacies. Boulangerie and pâtisserie are on virtually every street, fortunately.
What differentiates these bakeries? For example, “A pâtisserie makes fancy pastry chef-style pastries, like gâteau St-Honoré, whereas a boulangerie makes baker-style pastries, like madeleines.”
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The SpeciaList
In 2003, pastry chef David Lebovitz moved to Paris from Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, after 13 years baking there. He wrote nine novels, including My Paris Kitchen and The Sweet Life in Paris. His website has recipes and Paris eating and travel ideas, and his newsletter recommends restaurants and bakeries.
Lebovitz, who has lived in Paris for 21 years, writes an award-winning blog about Paris’s favorite baked products and provides recipes and tales. Over the last decade, this Parisian pastry specialist has seen a change in the baking landscape. “These younger bakers are influenced by what’s happening in other countries, and as a result, they are a lot more fun than the old guard,” he says. “They are experimental, adding things like seeds and grains to brioche, which in the old days everyone would say, ‘you can’t do that’.”
Not everything new is excellent. “More often than not, I just want a delicious, buttery croissant or a palmier to snack on,” he adds. “Traditional French pastries have stood the test of time and while it’s fun to venture outside the box, I often find myself craving the classics.”
Here are Lebovitz’s favorite Parisian old- and new-school bakeries.
1. Top pastry: Jacques Genin
It’s hard to choose the greatest Parisian pastry, but Lebovitz always goes for the Paris-Brest at Jacques Genin. The circular pastry is named after the Paris-Brest cycling race and resembles a wheel. Pastry à choux (used to create eclairs and cream puffs) is piped into a ring, split horizontally, and filled with praline mousse to produce a Paris-Brest.
“At Jacques Genin they make the pastry to order, so don’t be in a hurry when you go,” he says. Well worth the wait. “Paris’ most beautiful dessert is a classic. Lebovitz states, “The crunchy fresh-baked dough is piped with an amazing hazelnut praline cream and topped with roasted Piedmontese hazelnuts.” “And it’s not too sweet.”
After the Paris-Brest, sample Genin’s exceptionally flaky mille feuille, pâtes de fruits, cream puffs, and eclairs. And his great caramels. “Genin’s caramels (buttery bombs) are legendary,” Lebovitz continues, “but I favor the passionfruit and mango caramel. Usually I don’t like caramel flavors, but these are great.”
Jacquesgenin.fr
133, rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris (many locations)
Phone: +33 1 45 77 29 01 Instagram: @jacquesgenin
2. Best croissant: Tout Autour Du Pain
“It’s nearly impossible to say where to get the best croissant in Paris,” adds Lebovitz, who prefers Tout Autour du Pain in the Upper Marais by baker Benjamin Turquier. “It’s not a fancy place and the croissant is not super flaky or oversized, but when you bite into it, it’s just right,” adds. “You can taste the really good butter; it’s the perfect croissant.”
Lebovitz’s Bread Advice
When purchasing bread, choose a boulangerie over a dépôt du pain, which makes it elsewhere. Parliament passed Le Décret Pain (the Bread Decree) in 1993, requiring bakeries to create baguettes tradition, à l’ancienne, and de campagne using just four ingredients: wheat, yeast, water, and salt. Boulangeries must respect this regulation, so you’ll get a fresh, handcrafted loaf, probably warm from the oven.
Lebovitz chose well. Turquier has often placed in Paris’ top-10 baguette and croissant competitions. In addition to his award-winning croissants and baguettes, Lebovitz loves Turquier’s pain d’epices, a French spice cake with orange marmalade and a cake-like-rubbery texture. “The pain d’epices are sold by the slab and they hover over the loaf with a knife when you go to buy some,” he adds, “and you just say ‘yes’ when to cut or let them know if you want more.”
Address: 134, rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris
Phone: +33 1 42 78 04 72 Instagram: @toutautourdupain
3. Favorite Instagram desserts: French Bastards
One of the three cool, young French friends who founded the French Bastards “bakery and bastarderie” trained in Australia, where he was “jokingly dubbed the French bastard in the kitchen”, recalls Lebovitz. When they opened in 2019, they wanted to revamp the bakery by recreating classics and adding “a healthy dose of food porn”. The irreverent trio was highly inspired by US events and served cruffins, caramelized croissant “waffles” and more alongside croissants, pains au chocolat, pains Suisse, and more.
Lebovitz prefers their lemon tart above all other baked items. “It’s really tart,” he says. “Many French lemon tarts lack tang. Lemon-flavored, with a thick meringue topping and soft pâte sucrée crust.” Le St-Ho, seasonal Saint-Honoré pastries, and babka are popular. Find their new B*astards ice cream cookies in summer.
Site: https://thefrenchbastards.fr/en
61 Rue Oberkampf, 75011 Paris (many places)
The French Bastards is on Instagram.
4. Best babak: Boulangerie Mamiche
In 2017, Victoria Effantin and Cécile Khayat founded Mamiche, a bakery with a long queue in the 9th arrondissement. However, Lebovitz claims that social media excitement is not the only cause for the huge queues. Our top-selling babka, a twist of golden brioche dough with a whorl of bittersweet chocolate, is one of Paris’ greatest, and it shows how the youthful team takes a worldwide perspective at their three shops.
Lebovitz travels to Mamiche for the babka and two other items. “They have the most delicious, seedy pain de mie aux grains (fluffy wholegrain bread),” adds, “and I love their pain Suisse (Swiss bread) – croissant dough folded over with bits of chocolate chips held together with pastry cream.”
Website: mamieche.fr
Address: 75 Rue Condorcet, 75009 Paris (many sites)
Phone: +33 1 53 21 03 68
Instagram: @boulangeriemamiche
5. Best fresh chocolate pastries: Plaq
“This isn’t a usual suspect, like Ladurée,” says Lebovitz of Plaq, an artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate firm founded by Sandra Mielenhausen and Nicolas Rozier-Chabert in 2017 after realizing the world’s greatest chocolate wasn’t French The pair named their firm Plaq after the French term for chocolate bar, plaque.
Plaq offers pastry chef Céline Lecoeur’s cakes, pastries, and tarts with chocolates. “They make the most delicious fresh chocolate pastries,” adds Lebovitz, who prefers Le Fondant Ultra Chocolat. “It’s a rectangle of pure baked chocolate ganache that you eat with a fork,” he says “and is truly the best rectangle of chocolate you’ll ever put in your mouth.”
Plaq’s cookies are delicious despite not being French. “People in Paris don’t quite get cookies, but Plaq gets it,” he explains. “It might seem strange to come to Paris for an American-style cookie, but their chocolate chunk pecan cookie is exceptional.” Another highlight is Plaq’s gluten-free buckwheat biscuit. Despite the hefty expenses, Lebovitz maintains manufacturing their own chocolate is worth it.
Website: plaqchocolat.com
Address: 4 Rue de Nil, 75002 Paris
Instagram: @plaqchocolat
6. Best gluten-free bakery: Chambelland
Nathaniel Doboin and biologist-turned-baker Thomas Teffri-Chambelland founded their first Chambelland store in 2012. In Noyers-sur-Jabron, Teffri-Chambelland established École Internationale de Boulangerie, a famous bread making school. Chambelland is a natural, gluten-free bakery that makes fresh-milled flour from organic rice, buckwheat, and chestnuts in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. The duo built their own mill.
“You don’t have to be gluten-free to love Chambelland,” adds Lebovitz. Their main product is an organic, naturally gluten-free rice bread, but Lebovitz loves their lemon pie, which is bright and tangy with a crunchy rice flour crust. “They also have a wonderful pastry called pain de sucre, a thin loaf of dough that’s rolled in orange flower syrup and sugar, so it develops a crisp, light crust when it bakes.”
Chambelland.com/en/
Location: 43 Rue Brochant, 75017 Paris
Phone: +33 1 40 25 04 68 (many places)
Instagram: @chambellandparis
7. Best tarte tatin: Berthillon Salon de Thé
France’s rich, caramelized apple tart, tarte tatin, is one of Lebovitz’s most requested recipes. “People always ask and I tell them that you can’t buy a whole tarte tatin – they’re eaten warm, so bakeries don’t make them,” adds. Tarte tatin is best served per slice.
Lebovitz prefers the Tea Salon at Berthillon’s ice cream, not its tarts and pastries. Only on the Île St. Louis, surrounded by visitors, can you obtain it. “Their tarte tatin is tall, with a solid wall of well-caramelized apples and their amazing ice cream,” he adds. “It’s hard to go wrong.”
A cheaper slice may be available elsewhere, but Lebovitz thinks it’s worth it since the tearoom is one of Paris’s most luxurious.
The Berthillon website
Address: 31 street Saint-Louis en l’Ile, 75004 Paris
Phone: +33 1 43 54 31 61 Instagram: @berthillon_officiel
