Paris by taste
Eat your way through Paris with these unique experiences
Like many visitors before me, I ate my way through Paris. But it wasn’t mindless gluttony really! I did so in an organized and, dare I say it, educational fashion. Over the course of a week, I took a baking class, a pastry tour and had an experience that combined touring, cooking and wine tippling.
Which was the most delicious? I’d have to give that honor to Le Foodist’s Market Tour and Cooking Class. As I discovered in college, it’s the teacher who makes the class, and in this case that was Fred Pouillot, the erudite and very funny founder of the school. He’s a former chemical engineer with the wry delivery of a French David Letterman. In the course of several hours, he not only took us through complex recipes for a three-course meal, but taught us techniques we’ll be able to use in numerous situations. He also explained the science behind many of the cooking processes. A market visit in the lively Latin Quarter preceded the cooking, with Fred pointing out sights of historic interest and handing out scrumptious cheese samples. After cooking together, everyone sat down to a delicious meal, with wine. Parfait!
Second place, but just by a teaspoon, was Les Secrets Gourmand de Noemie. And the big secret turned out to be how terrifically difficult it is to make good macarons. These pastel cookies take multiple steps and even multiple days to get right (Noemie, our teacher, separates her egg whites several days in advance to let them “settle”). Every ingredient was painstakingly weighed or measured, and there were a good 25 of them for each type of macaron. Finally, after two hours of baking, we had little boxes of lemon and pistachio macarons to take home. Much fun was had.
Least compelling was the “Let Them Eat Cakes” tour from Toursbylocals.com. As described on the website, the experience was supposed to be a history walk with stops for the best pastries in Paris. But the guide, a reticent young man named David, seemed to feel as if he’d be bothering me if he included too many tales from the past in the walk. He did lead me to scrumptious sweets, and had some insider information on the bakers, which was fun. But frankly, when the tour was done, I wished I’d been crafting my own food with either Noemie or Fred. It seemed better to take knowledge home, rather than just a few boxes of eclairs and mille-feuille. That’s the final lesson, I suppose. Note to the reader: Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip. The information in this column was accurate when it was released, but prices are competitive, sometimes limited and can always change without notice. Pauline Frommer is the Editorial Director for the Frommer Travel Guides and Frommers.com. She co-hosts the radio program The Travel Show with her father, Arthur Frommer and is the author of the best-selling Frommer’s Easyguide to New York City.