The Big Business of Holiday Pastry in France
Every year, the holiday season in France officially kicks off in September. That is, if you are in the business of creating or writing about the confections that consumers intend to order for their holiday tables.
After nearly six months of recipe developing and experimenting, pastry chefs and chocolate houses bring in photographers and journalists from the country’s top newspapers and magazines, along with a select group of “influencers,” for exclusive previews of their collection de fêtes. Much like the frenetic pace of showroom visits during fashion week, pastry previews are a serious affair. Journalists are hurried, squeezing in appointments to get a look at everything from the intricate creations of five-star-hotel pastry chefs to the more accessible offerings at beloved neighborhood bakeries.
Invitées fire off their questions in rapid succession: Your inspiration? The complexity of the recipe? How many will be available? Then they’ll bite into samples of modern bûches (yule log cakes), spiced cakes, galettes des rois (kings’ cakes), and maybe a ganache or two before jetting off to their next visit—all before they’ve even had a chance to clear their plates.
By the end of the second week of back-to-back tastings, those journalists tasked with documenting and ranking the year’s most artful, creative, flavorful, and crowd-pleasing confections have reached saturation. “I just take a couple of bites, that’s all I can manage at this point. I have another tasting to get to!” says an assistant editor, who preferred to remain anonymous, as we dug our forks into Julien Alvarez’s key ring–shaped entremet (a small cake usually served between courses), created for Le Bristol hotel. By the time I finished my slice and looked up to discuss the intensity and complexity of the flavors—roasted and ground cacao beans with a blend of toasted vanilla and caramelized white chocolate—the editor had already slipped out of the room, leaving her plate behind.
Her findings, along with those by her fellow reviewers, grace the pages of France’s leading food magazines, from Fou de Pâtisserie to Saveurs, by early November. Special-edition issues lay out the essentials: the year’s best bûches, the chocolate- and candy-filled advent calendars worth splurging for, and the most giftable confections, from seasonal macarons to cookies.
To an outsider, the idea of gathering months in advance to review in earnest what is—in many parts of the world considered a frivolity of holiday celebrations—seems like pure indulgence; a spectacle of culinary arts that could only exist in France. But if holiday confections are treated with seriousness and ceremony in equal measure, it is a testament to the importance of dessert on the Christmas table. And as an indication of one’s discerning palate, it must impress. Americans may find a sense of virtue in preparing a labor-intensive meal from scratch for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the French know when there’s a course best left up to the professionals.
While it’s certainly an inconvenience for chefs and chocolatiers to have their creative timeline dictated by a newspaper or magazine’s editorial schedule, they concede for the immutable fact that the festive period—which runs from Christmas Eve on Dec. 24 through the Epiphany (Twelfth Night) on Jan. 6—is the biggest revenue-generator of the year. And media attention helps.
“Nearly half of our annual business happens between December and early January,” explains Erwan Blanche, co-owner of the popular 11th arrondissement bakery and patisserie Utopie. “For the small guys like us, it’s all hands on deck or you could screw your whole year.”
For a larger-scale operation such as Dalloyau, a historic food company based in Paris that got its start catering royal banquets and celebrations in the 17th century, the holidays represent approximately 20% of its annual revenue. The institution’s head pastry chef, Jérémy Del Val, says the sheer quantity of confections he and his team need to produce throughout the month—more than 11,000 sorts of bûches and 500 galettes, in addition to the usual selection of products—requires reinforcements in the lab.
“It’s an intense period, for sure, but it’s exciting knowing that the recipes we worked on for weeks so many months ago are finding their way into people’s homes,” he says. “Rest can wait!”
Seasonal pastry is equally as important to the festivities at the country’s most luxurious hotels, most of which go to great lengths to transform into refined winter wonderlands for guests spending the holidays away from home.
At the Ritz Paris, pastry chef François Perret’s full-size torrefied hazelnut log with dark-chocolate spirals is produced in more modest quantities, but available in individual formats at the Bar Vendôme. In total, he and his team will produce 1,000 individual bûches throughout December and will start 2020 with a mandate of 1,000 galettes des rois, which will be served during teatime in the hotel’s Salon Proust and at the Ritz Christmas chalet, located in front of the hotel in the Place Vendôme—a prime way to introduce passersby to Perret’s work and the hotel’s festive programming.
Apollonia Poilâne, the third-generation baker in her family’s legendary sourdough and specialty bread bakery Poilâne, calls attention to another holiday table bedfellow: bread. “While people eat bread throughout the year, our customers’ choices are more festive during the holiday. It’s a time of bread-pairing and personalizations, such as bread rolls with names to serve as place cards,” she explains, highlighting the importance of ritual and allowing oneself to go the extra mile for the sake of a memorable, celebratory meal.
And as for the importance of the season for one of the country’s most renowned chocolatiers, its impact is only rivaled by what follows in the new year. High-end chocolatier Jean-Paul Hévin attributes 30% of his business to holiday orders, with his seven bûches and assorted chocolate boxes leading the way in sales. But it’s in Japan, where Hévin runs twelve boutiques, that he generates the most overall revenue.
“Not for Christmas…for Valentine’s day!” he says with a laugh. “I can’t complain. It’s a nice follow-up to what will have hopefully been a strong season in France.”
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