Best Pastry Named Paris... Its Best Makers Are from Outside the City

Although the name of the “Paris-Brest” pastry is associated with the French capital, this year’s title of best maker went to a pastry chef working in Fontainebleau, a town outside Paris.

Timothy Bousset, from the “Frederic Cassel” shop, took first place in the inaugural edition of the “Best Paris-Brest” competition, with results announced in early November at the Paris Chocolate and Pastry Show, according to the French website “Sortir à Paris.”

The final round featured 15 pastry chefs who were asked to prepare the dessert according to its traditional recipe, without innovations that alter its core ingredients or its well-known shape.

The “Paris-Brest” is characterized by its light, circular dough filled with praline cream made from almonds or hazelnuts, and can be decorated with a crunchy topping.

Contestants presented two identical pieces, with no identifying marks, to allow evaluation of appearance, taste, and cutting quality. Taste accounted for the largest share of the score, with 120 points out of a total of 200.

The story of the pastry dates back to 1910, when French pastry chef Louis Durand created it in the town of Maisons-Laffitte to celebrate the Paris-Brest bicycle race, designing it in a circular shape that mimics a bicycle wheel.