Ever wondered what goes into London’s most famous eclairs? Maître Choux not only produces London’s most famous and most beautiful choux pastry, they are also the world’s first choux pastry specialist…and thanks to frequent appearances on Instagram they, have amassed a cult following. But ever wondered if these pastries taste as good as they look? I went to investigate their brand new Soho site and to see the Master Pâtissier action to find out….and spoiler alert, yes they do!!
Could there be a more perfect pairing with this delicious confection than a chilled glass on Champagne Laurent-Perrier? With a glass poured I settled back to hear all about the story about how Maître Choux was born. The creator and three Michelin star-experienced chef, Joakim Prat met Jeremie Vaislic whilst working at Joël Robuchon and the two Frenchman partnered up to open their first choux store in South Kensington.
Every day Joakim makes hundreds of pastries freshly for their South Kensington store and nearly every day the whole stock of éclairs, choux and choquette sells out. It was definitely time for a bigger store and Soho’s Dean Street was the perfect location.
In the kitchen of the Goodhousekeeping Institute, Joakim showed us how he makes his famously flawless choux pastry by boiling together water, milk, magic, butter, salt and sugar. Flour is used to dry up the wet mixture before it’s finished with some eggs. 
Piping the eclairs is done with extreme care to achieve that perfect uniformity that looks so good in those Instagram shots. 
The multi-coloured glaze is made by hydrating gelatine and then boiling cream with glucose and water. The gelatine is added to this mix as well as melted chocolate and miroir neutre to make it shiny.
Making the cream is the final step and Joakim mixes egg with sugar which he boils before adding raspberry puree. He adds gelatine, butter and then yogurt and rosewater once it’s cools down. Simple!
Fuelled with Laurent-Perrier, I had my own chance to have ago and I carefully injected the pastry with cream before dipping the bun in the glaze. 
From there all there was left to do was to decorate my Princess Pink raspberry eclairs! And I was pretty impressed with my effort – perfect is boring after all!
The new Maître Choux will be a bigger space allowing room for guests to sit and enjoy a hot drink – hot chocolate made from Joakim’s grandmother’s own recipe is the recommended beverage. The core range that was made famous by the South Kensington store will be available, try the Spanish raspberry or the hazelnut and milk chocolate treasure pictured in the first photo or try a chouquette with your coffee.
Joakim and Jeremie make a fantastic team and I wish them all the luck with the opening of the Soho store on the 1st November.
Thank you Maître Choux and Laurent-Perrier for having me for the event.
