To celebrate the arrival of this year’s warm weather, the French newspaper Le Figaro just published the results of its “Test des Meilleures Tartes aux Fraises” (the best Strawberry Tart competition) in Paris. Why strawberry tarts one might ask? Well, the paper hailed the return of individual strawberry tarts in pastry shop windows as ‘one of spring’s greatest pleasures’ in France. And too, for many French, the tarts’ visual presence after their long winter absence marks two of the great things in life–beautiful summer weather as well as cherished outdoor meals with family.
Whether enjoying their own homemade strawberry tarts or ones created in a pastry shop, the French are picky about what makes a good tarte aux fraises (pronounced ‘tart oh frehz’ in English). But it’s difficult to know today what qualifies as “best” since no there’s no set formula for making a French strawberry tartelette.
For a long time, the typical individual strawberry tart available in French pastry shops was round in shape and about three inches in diameter. The base of shortbread pastry was covered with vanilla cream and topped with whole strawberries, arranged like a small mountain. To show the strawberries to their best advantage, they would be brushed with a light berry glaze. You can still find these traditional tarts at many pastry shops in France:
But in the spirit of creativity, many pastry artisans today have come up with their own strawberry tart model, whether round, triangular or square. The “filling” varies as well and strawberries no longer have to whole but are often cut into halves or even quarters for their tart’s particular artistic presentation.
So Le Figaro’s informal tasting team had a challenging task on its hands as it tried to determine this year’s best strawberry tart. But they managed to ‘test the tarts,’ judging them in a blind tasting on four categories: 1) Overall presentation, 2) quality of the strawberries, 3) balance amongst the pastry, cream and fruit, and 4) comparison of the quality to the price. As of last week, their results are in:
First place – Gérard Mulot in the 6th arrondissement
Second place – Jacques Génin in the 3rd arrondissement
Third place – Dalloyau in the 8th arrondissement
Fourth place – Ladurée in the 8th arrondissement
Sweets guru Gérard Mulot took the top prize for his square-shaped tart that the judges felt met all the criteria (see the Figaro newspaper photo above). As they affirmed, his tart was “very appetizing and well-endowed with flavorful strawberries.” For the complete article in French, please click here.
It must be noted that not all the well-known Paris pastry shops participated in the contest. Some of them, including the legendary Pierre Hermé, decided to offer individual strawberry tarts at the end of May when all strawberries are in ‘full bloom.’ Others, like Fauchon, decided to make May a strawberry marketing blowout with their “Create-Your-Own-Tart” event. Forget made-to-measure clothes–you can design your own strawberry tart! Make a beeline to Fauchon Place de la Madeleine on Fridays and Saturdays in May for your own customized red fruit extravaganza. Here’s how it works:
1) Choose your favorite strawberry – Only in France would you be offered your choice of nine strawberry varieties: Ciflorette, Naïade, Gariguette, Darselect, Mara des Bois, Manille, Anablanca, Capella pleine terre, Gariguette de Plougastel.
2) Select your preferred pastry base – shortbread crust, sweet pastry crust or butter crust.
3) Will it be vanilla pastry cream or chantilly (whipped cream) for your tart?
4) Watch as the pastry chef artistically arranges your strawberries on top of your personalized strawberry tart!
This sounds kind of fun–but also a little over the top in my opinion. Perhaps it’s better to pick up your high-season strawberry tart from Le Figaro’s award winner, Gérard Mulot. You can swing by one of the Mulot shops around town (my favorite is his headquarters on the Rue de Seine near the Luxembourg Gardens) and taste his award-winning tarte aux fraises. And let yourself be tempted by all the other beautiful–and delectable–offerings including his very special almond macarons…
Gérard Mulot
Magasin Saint Germain
76, rue de seine
75006 Paris
Magasin Glacière
93, rue de la glacière
75013 Paris
Magasin du Marais
6, rue du Pas de la Mule
75003 Paris
French Take-Out ~ La France à emporter
In Julia Child’s The French Chef Cookbook which chronicles recipes from her highly acclaimed television cooking series*, Child offers a classic French Strawberry Tart recipe (pp.225-228) for American chefs. As she notes, “Big or little, round or rectangular, fresh strawberry tarts are a feast for the eye as well as the tongue.” While she doesn’t dwell on the seasonality and perfect state of strawberries like the French, she probably takes that as a given after her decades of living and cooking in France.
Try making your own strawberry tart—and write a comment here about your cooking experience. Better yet, send me a photo of your homemade tart, and I will post it. Or let us know which pastry shops near you in the U.S. make a great strawberry tart, and I will list them here. That way, French Affaires’ readers can go pick up a few and conduct their own informal “test des meilleures tartes aux fraises”!
* The next French Cookbook Club event in June features The French Chef Cookbook. There are a few spots left for our June 23 evening where we’ll discuss and cook our way through this intriguing culinary volume. What makes this cookbook selection so interesting is that you can also pick up the DVD version and watch the episodes of Julia Child preparing both classic and more adventurous recipes. What a treat!