Every year, Easter is a time when Paris chocolatiers and pastry chefs put all their creative flair into creating exquisite chocolate desserts. Ranging from classic creations to more unusual delights, these confections from Paris patisseries are a treat for the eyes as well as the taste buds.
© Maison Lenôtre
Lenôtre's Easter 2024 collection, entitled "Vive la chasse aux œufs" ("Long live the egg hunt"), pays tribute to this gourmet springtime tradition. Pastry chef Etienne Leroy has created the Easter Treasure egg, a 10-kilo chocolate work of art adorned with daisy flowers and eggs draped in gold leaf, all set on a pedestal inspired by Parisian gardens. The collection also includes chocolate and caramel entremets, a Œuf Gourmand in milk chocolate with a hazelnut praline filling, macaroons, a mendiant egg bar and the classic chocolate eggs and bunnies. Yummy!
© Hôtel Lutetia Paris
For Easter 2024, pastry chef Nicolas Guercio and the Lutetia palace unveil the Grande Baleine à Bosse, a chocolate egg symbolising the hotel's commitment to a more sustainable future and the preservation of endangered species. This creation is made from dried sea lettuce leaves, naturally iodised, then ground to a powder and incorporated into a un-dried dark chocolate (with a slightly grainy texture) Oko 73% Peru. Inside the double shell is a generous heart of black sesame praline. Also not to be missed, the trio of Baleineaux, with a base of white chocolate and filled with friture, available in chocolate-raspberry, milk and white chocolate, or chocolat Illanka Grand Cru 63% noir!
© Studio des Fleurs
The star of Easter 2024 at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme is the Œuf Bijou by pastry chef Naraé Kim, voted pastry chef of the year by Gault&Millau! Each layer of this jewel in dark Guanaja chocolate and dark and milk Gianduja hides a selection of surprise biscuits, while the base is topped with hazelnut praline. A demanding and innovative work of art for the most discerning gourmets!
© Laurent Fau
Anne Coruble, Head Pastry Chef at The Peninsula Paris, is unveiling her signature anniversary egg "L'Éclosion" to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Parisian Palace. Inspired by the blown Bohemian crystal structure installed in the entrance hall, the dark chocolate creation, topped with a milk chocolate, green and blue vanilla ganache, stands out with its 10 petals and its heart of buckwheat praline with almond and smoked vanilla. A wonderful ode to spring and its renewal!
© Romeo Balancourt
This year, Il Carpaccio, the Michelin-starred restaurant at the Palace Royal Monceau-Raffles-Paris, is offering a collection of three exceptional Easter eggs, in collaboration with chefs Oliver Piras and Alessandra Del Favero. Inspired by the blown-glass sculptures of artist Lino Tagliapietra, the eggs have an unusual shape with a double shell of couverture chocolate, skilfully filled with a praline or confit.
© Fauchon Paris DR
This Easter, Fauchon's Fish & Chic collection combines gastronomy and haute couture, two world-renowned French skills. The Signature Eggs, shaped and painted by hand, come in the colours of the spring-summer season - sugared pink, denim blue and apple green - and are available in dark and milk chocolate. There are also extravagantly decorated praline-coated eggs, a box of gourmet treats, colourful "Fauchonistas" fish in haute couture style that are full of wonders, dry-fried miniature versions of Easter fish in Cameroon chocolate, and macaroons!
© Café de la Paix DR
Café de la Paix, the restaurant of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand located opposite the emblematic Opéra Garnier, presents its Easter creation, the Opéra 'Fa'. In homage to the Opera, the Executive Chef of the Café de la Paix, Laurent André, revisits the traditional egg as a delicate music box. The emerald-green egg, highlighted with a bright gold border - the institution's historic colour - contains a moving ballerina dressed in an airy tutu. Made from 65% Cluizel dark chocolate, it contains a creamy double praline of almond and hazelnut, crispy feuillantine and a hint of milk chocolate. Three chocolate chips and small Easter eggs adorn this traditional, gourmet creation.
© Calvin Courjon
To mark Easter 2024, Chef Cedric Grolet and his pastry chefs at Le Meurice Alain Ducasse are unveiling three gastronomic creations based on the world of dried fruit. Two of the creations consist of trompe-l'œil chocolates in the shape of almonds and hazelnuts, which under a milk chocolate shell enclose a thick crunchy almond praline and a hazelnut praline. A fine hint of Guérande fleur de sel enhances these tasty creations. The third creation, the "Dessins fruits", are 75% dark chocolate shells decorated with sketches by the Chef, hiding a crunchy praline around a mixture of dried fruits.
© Laurent Fau
For the festive season, the Pastry Chef Maxence Barbot of the Shangri-La Paris has concocted a creation inspired by his native Brittany, the Œuf de Pâques Bénitier. In a 75% dark chocolate shell, the chocolate envelops a heart of praline, almonds, hazelnuts and a melting heart of caramel with fleur de sel. While a layer of chocolate sprinkled with wakame flower of salt enhances the whole, the real surprise lies in one of these Easter eggs, containing a candy sugar pearl, entitling the winner to a trip for two to the Shangri-La Le Touessrok! The Chef is also adding to the Easter collection a 65% Peruvian chocolate flan with pastry cream, for four people. Don't delay!
© Yann Couvreur
Parisian pastry chef Yann Couvreur has unveiled his new Easter collection for 2024. His creations include an XL-sized egg and a small surprise egg, both monogrammed and with hazelnut praline, with a dark or milk chocolate variant, or the S Easter egg, in white or milk chocolate. There are also the iconic Coiled Fox in milk chocolate with a hazelnut praline filling, the M Easter egg in dark or milk chocolate with a hazelnut praline filling, a candy box of dark or milk chocolates, and a pot of chips and pralines.
© Laurent Rouvrais
La Maison du Chocolat is celebrating Easter with its 1, 2, 3, Pâques collection and its Œuf contre-la-montre, a masterpiece designed by chef Nicolas Cloiseau. Around a central egg in 56% dark chocolate with 450 perforations concealing milk and dark fried and praline chocolates, a cocoa-glazed racetrack reveals white lines in ivory chocolate. Three egg athletes in milk, dark or dulcey chocolate are racing in a sack! Two other creations accompany the Olympic tribute, the Œuf bouchée noisette or cacahuète and the Œuf coquille ganache, with a shell containing 63% pure Peruvian chocolate with notes of dark fruit.
In Rue de Montfaucon, in the 6th arrondissement, La Tarte Tropézienne is celebrating Easter with a chocolatey, gourmet take on its legendary tart. With a runny hazelnut centre and chocolate shavings and roasted hazelnuts on top, there's something for all ages!
La Maison Caffet takes you on a culinary adventure with its Safari chocolaté collection, featuring a chocolate, praline and passion fruit entremets, intense milk or dark mouldings of the Marco l'Hippo mascot, praline bites, praline egg boxes, and other exclusive creations, in bars or animal shapes! Among the other big names in grocery shops, La Maison Petrossian is presenting its original combination of creamy 70% dark chocolate and roasted dried fruit with Ossetra Tsar Impérial caviar 15g, while Chef Michalak is having fun designing a collection of unique, gourmet trompe-l'œil, based on pecan or hazelnut praline rochers with peanut or pistachio gianduja, coconut praline eggs, pistachio, hazelnut and chocolate bars, or the well-filled Œuf galaxie!
