A Cook’s Dream Corner In Paris

My first passion is being a therapist, which has always brought me much fulfillment and joy in helping others, but my other passion is gastronomy and cooking!

To those of you who know me or my regular readers, this is no surprise, given the culinary  and wine posts sprinkled throughout.

There is a sort of  a golden triangle for serious cooks and pastry makers here that make up some of the last remnants of the old Les Halles, all within fairly close proximity to each other.

I seem to gravitate towards the lower Montmartre -Montorgueil, Saint Eustache -Les Halles district often,  which is crowded, colourful, picturesque and oozes old Paris charm.

Apart from the Latin Quarter,  Notre Dame, and Ile Saint Louis, it is one of my favorite places to walk around and window shop.

I have always enjoyed the old Les Halles district, since my student days here, which has since undergone two successive huge renovations since they tore down the magnificent Baltard wrought iron latticed food halls, once called the “belly of Paris”.

I am old enough and fortunate enough to remember the original Les Halles before it was unmercifully torn down in 1971.

I haven’t gotten use to the latest look above, but at least the old cobblestone streets for the most part remain crooked, uneven and chipped and majestic Saint Eustache church is still standing as well as the Fontaine des Innocents, though the street walkers are now pushed north on Rue Saint Denis.

There are five shops, all within this cook’s triangle that folks like myself can’t resist going to over and over again.  Four are cookware stores that each would dazzle any cook’s eyes and heart.

The other is a small boutique selling speciality foods mostly for professional and serious pastry makers. There are many excellent small food shops that line Rue Montorgueil, north of Etienne Marcel open on a daily basis, except on Mondays.

The Les Halles Saint Eustache open air market on Rue Montmartre is small but quaint on thursday afternoon and Sunday mornings, but there remains some excellent foie gras stores on the street.

Last friday I was on a bûche mold quest, so I decided to go to all of my favourite cookware places, though I rarely need an excuse to go.

It is a quick ride for me via metro or bus and I usually start on Rue Rambuteau, part of which borders les Halles and head north, but last Friday I got off at Rue Etienne Marcel to start at the northern edges.

Walking down Etienne Marcel I passed by the medieval tower of Jean Sans Peur(John the Fearless).  It is the remaining vestige of the royal Ducs de Bourgogne Palace.

It is now a very interesting museum worthy of a visit to see the vaulted wooden roofed top bedrooms where Jean slept for safety and the impressive latrines.

The entrance to the food part of Rue Montorgueil was decorated for the holidays as well as the venerable Stohrer pastry shop, the oldest in Paris, which has been there since 1730.

The interior is as pretty as their pastries, for which they built their fame on Religieuses, Babas and Puit d’Amours.

Fou de Patisserie, who also publishes a wonderful pastry magazine is close by and has a new concept of selling various pastry chefs creations under one roof, all for 5.90 euros.

Next stop was beloved G. Detou, on Rue Tiquetonne where I go to buy my chocolates  and nuts for pastries.

The quality is worth it despite waiting in up to 3 to 4 lines, and the ever present thicket of people.

It is always crowded and besides having to dodge others in the tiny aisles, you have to follow an exasperating old French procedure of checking out, that never has changed in most small food stores and cookware shops.

If you can find and reach your article yourself you save yourself from one line.  Then you have to wait to have the stuff written up.  Afterwards you wait in another line to pay for it at the cashier behind  glass, then return to wait again to retrieve your articles from the sales person.

You have to be a little bit crazy or desperate to even attempt to go there on a Saturday during the holiday season, unless being squeezed like a sardine is your thing.

Besides their excellent selection of premiere  cooking chocolates, like all the Barry and Valrhona lines, they have just about everything else a pastry chef would need for high quality ingredients.

Their glaceed fruits are excellent, but I prefer to make my own orange, lemon peels, ext. The broken pieces of glazed chestnuts around Christmas are an excellent buy. Candied roses and violets are also there.

I make my own praline or pistachio paste and puff pastry, but you can find superb puff pastry dough  there too.  They have an adjoining shop for foie gras and the sorts, just as small.

Heading around the corner up Rue Montmartre is A. Simon, one of the more spacious famous cookware shops. They have a selection of tableware in addition to cookware pots, pans and utensils.

Going back to cross over Etienne Marcel, you find La Bovida prominently on  the corner of Rue Montmartre.  It has been there since 1921 and has several storys to browse around.

They also carry a line of fonds du cuisine, or mother sauces that I have never bought, preferring to make my own.

Just down the street is MORA, which is more specialized in pastry ware and decoration, though they carry pots and pans and everything else.

It was crowded as usual.  Their vast display wall of flexible pastry  molds, which is only partially what was on display is testimony to the tendency towards silicone.

They had the largest selection of pastry bags and the popular Silikomart moulds from Italy.  For a lot of cakes and pastries, I still prefer metal molds and tins.

I saved my favorite cookware store for the last stop.  Dehillerin has been at the corner of Rue Coquilliere and Jean Jacque Rousseau since 1896, though has been in business earlier in the area.

I first came here in the late sixties and the store literally has not changed one iota!

You are literally stepping back into time, only some of the inventory has changed.

It is dimly lit, a bit dusty, but what a marvelous haven for professional and serious cooks! I could spend hours there, but it is really difficult to leave empty handed!

The floor plan is small, even counting a small downstairs, and it is usually crowded. From floor to ceilings, you can find anything and everything of top-notch cookware, molds, knives, and pastry wares, plus anything else you would need in a kitchen. 

Their massive heavy copper pots and pans are marvelous, but they also carry Mauviel as well.

They all are very expensive, but will last a lifetime now because all are lined with stainless steel, not tin as they were in the past.

All knives and utensils are still kept piled in individual old tin boxes.

They too still have the old French check out procedure, but more frustrating is figuring out the prices!

There are never any prices on the articles!  You have a number that you have to either remember or write down and look up on a main catalogue or another one in the black steel pan aisle.

There are always two prices, one without value added tax and the other with. Overheard two Italians complain that “this is really complicated”, but I doubt Dehillerin will ever change!

My first copper pot  bought there in 1971, was tin lined and is in need of retinning, which they still do.  My steel mandoline is unblemished and still sharp and my first pastry baton in great condition, except for grandson’s paint job. It has been retired only because I bought a new one from their vast selection when I first came back to Paris to live.

The massive copper egg white bowl I bought at the same time was mismanaged and lost before I had room to bring it over, which remains a grievous matter.

As soon as I returned back to live, I headed to Dehillerin to pick up a few basics needed to furnish my kitchen.

I have always been treated nicely by the sales personal, though others sometime complain otherwise.  Jacques, who seems to be a permanent fixture  as well, is very helpful, though  direct and straightforward.

Anytime that I have gone there, I heard english being spoken to the hoards of tourists who flock to Dehillerin, which does ship things abroad.

They have been catering to professional cooks all over the world for over a 100 years and even were chosen to furnish the French line ships kitchens (when they were sailing).

Retracing my steps on Rue Coquilliere, I stopped to look inside the beautiful old Au Pied De Cochon  restaurant, sadly said to have lost its excellence.

I have wonderful memories of having many years ago the sumptuous onion soup and heavily laden platters of glistening oysters and shellfish at 2 o’clock in the morning in this famous landmark of old Les Halles.

To those who are not familiar to shopping in France, especially in these aforementioned stores, a few words to remember.

The old French school of treating customers is not the same as you will find in America. No cheery greetings and friendly sales persons, who basically will ignore you and can seem indifferent or bothered to be asked for help, though I am seeing some changes evolving.

A perfect example of this change was evident when I stepped inside a brand new cookware store, called Du Bruit Dans La Cuisine, newly installed in the renovated Les Halles.

Shockingly I was not only greeted with smiles as soon as I walked in, but approached several times by friendly sales personnel and went out with a thank you and goodbye!

Hitting any of these stores requires a good measure of disciplined restraint.  I no longer have my large American kitchen and pastry island to store everything I want.

Besides that, you can easily break the bank buying whatever you want and think you need.  Glorious foods and pastries I have accomplish with sometimes the barest of essentials, in small spaces.

I remember when I was a student being shocked by the tiny Parisian kitchens that looked basically bare and a little shoddy, given that the French had such a reputation for food.

Parisian apartments and kitchens are still lilliputian in comparison to American standards, but my small renovated gallery kitchen is cute and modern, if not lavish.

I am still undecided about my Bûche, so I did not buy a “gouttiere”, which is made specially to mold a Bûche de Noel made mostly of a mousse with a pastry base.

The traditional one for me has always been  a biscuit roulade filled with praline French buttercream, requiring no molds.

No doubt, I will be returning to G Detou this week for some more almonds and hazelnuts and any chocolate  or chestnut glacees needed for holiday baking.

I know I will probably be drawn back in MORA or Dehillerin to be tempted again.   Who knows I may just give in, after all it is Christmas!