[Pastry Diary] Carette

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Following my days at Un Dimanche à Paris and Fauchon, I spent the next five months of my pastry career at Carette, a classic Parisian pâtisserie/salon de thé that has been sitting on Place du Trocadéro* since 1927. Carette pastries, as you might remark from the photos in this post, are more traditional in comparison to those from UDAP and Fauchon, and it’s a style that I very much appreciated re-learning as I haven’t done much of this since leaving pastry school. My days at Carette were truly happy ones largely thanks to the lovely people I worked with, and the five months here really flew by despite the long hours. I only just left a few days ago, and am already missing the good moments in this pastry kitchen…

* There is also a second, newer Carette boutique at Place des Vosges.
**Because I only have shots of the kitchen, I borrowed the first four photos of this post from Carin/Paris In Four Months, a dear friend of mine who also happens to be a fan of Carette. Thank you love :)

sugared & spiced - pastry kitchen diary carette

sugared & spiced - pastry kitchen diary carette

If you have read my previous pastry kitchen diaries, you know that life as a pâtissier isn’t as dreamy as how most people imagine it to be. For one thing, my days at Carette started at 4am everyday, which means that I had to wake up at 2:30am and bike to work since there is no metro at this hour, and there is no suitable night bus for my route. The journey wasn’t super long – about 20 minutes on the bike plus a few minutes walking – but it did involve going uphill (so I was often breathless when arriving at work), fickle Parisian weather (it said it wouldn’t rain this morning but of course it poured), frequent troubles with Vélib’ public bikes (flat tire, broken chain, missing paddle, or just no bike at all), and encounters with all sorts of fun characters (think drunk party goers and crazy football fans during the World Cup). Well, at least I got to burn off some calories…which I consumed right back as soon as I got to the kitchen. Freshly baked pastries for breakfast, who would say no to that?

sugared & spiced - pastry kitchen diary carette

sugared & spiced - pastry kitchen diary carette

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