Yohann is the pastry chef here at the Opéra shop.
We started working together at the Meurice.
We never stopped seeing each other,
it was an outright match even at the interview.
We discuss a lot, about everything.
How to improve this, how to improve that.
I thought: with Yohann,
we're going to make the most beautiful thing
in France, viennoiseries.
We're going to show you
the star product of this shop,
the pain au chocolat.
The pain au chocolat, is actually...
our clients are total fans
of the pain au chocolat.
We did the puff pastry
and the kneading, so layers of dough
and butter on top of each other.
Let's say that's butter.
I lay it down here and close this up.
So now I have: dough, butter, dough.
I'm going to stretch it out
and do another twist like this.
So my butter
is going to get thinner as it goes.
We have rolled the dough out.
As you can see, we make pretty thick layers
so that it gets really flaky.
Then we've chopped both width and length
so we can to roll the pain au chocolat.
We have two different chocolates,
we made our own recipe, with very little sugar.
then we shaped the chocolate sticks,
so that when rolling the pain au chocolat,
it will take on the exact shape
when the dough rises, it gets puffy all over.
If you squeeze the dough too hard,
the puffs aren't straight anymore.
So when the pain au chocolat
will go in the oven,
it's going to tilt to the right or left.
I want my pain au chocolat
to be absolutely perfect, super thin,
with super straight puffs.
So this whole step
is about paying extra attention
from start to finish.
Then we are going to put it
in the machine
that makes the pain au chocolat rise.
It's like a small oven
that releases humidity and heat,
so that the pain au chocolat
rises without splitting open.
The puffs are going to expand gradually,
and that will make very beautiful puffs
after being baked.
Once they have risen,
we are going to glaze them
with egg yolk, cream, and a little honey.
The egg tends to behave like an omelette,
it dries out, cracks.
We add some honey to give it a sugary side
and a shiny aspect,
and then some cream to add some fat
so that the dough can rise without cracking,
and the glazing is perfect.
So I just glazed the pains au chocolat,
they are ready to bake.
I'm going to heat them at 180°C,
7for about 15 minutes.
I did this every day for three months,
so that I could get the mix right.
I slice the pain au chocolat
to see the airy aspect on the inside.
Here you can see
the chocolate has melted a little,
with all the puff layers inside.
Some people may think
there is not much chocolate,
but actually,
since there is very little sugar in it,
it is very powerful,
and the flavours blend really well.
What I like
is for the crust to be crispy
that's super important.
You can see it's very crispy underneath,
and when I get to the chocolate,
it's almost bitter,
since there's very little sugar in it.
It's going to bring balance
between the dough and the chocolate.
Let's take a little breakfast.
OK for the breakfast,
a coffee for you and we're good to go?
All right, let's go!
This place lives all day long.
What I like is that at half past eight,
we open the shop
and we can have breakfast here.
Then from 11:00 to noon,
we make a big clean sweep of the room,
we set the tables to start a new service
for the sandwich shop,
and then it becomes a snack area.
There's a lot of pastry coming out here.
Everything you see here
you can find only at the Opéra shop,
and I wanted to make hot chocolate
like the ones I had in my childhood:
in a bowl,
that's very important to me.
So that's what I like in hot chocolate,
to be able to take this pain au chocolat,
and with this milk froth and chocolate,
to just dip it in,
and having the milk froth sticks a bit
on the pain au chocolat,
that's the moment of truth.
It's actually
a very simple moment for me,
but it's so good,
it's really what my job is all about,
and France, and Paris, very simple things,
with the textures I was looking for.
Thanks Vogue
for taking the time to come and see
our pain au chocolat.
Don't forget to subscribe
and see you soon!