I Prefer Paris: Sweet Week 2: Chez Bogato

I am a bit overdue on Sweet Week this year but I thought changing it to the week before Valentines Day was perfectly appropriate. I know all of you have been salivating since last January when I first introduced Sweet Week and have been totally consumed wondering when Sweet Week 2 would arrive. So nix your failed miserable attempts to diet from your boring, predictable New Years resolutions you know you weren't going to keep anyway and slip into a diabetic coma (safely on your computer screen) with me while I tempt you with my latest batch of sweet shops for the next four days.

Chez Bogato is a most charming sweet shop and bakery tucked away on a quiet, mostly residential street in the 14th arr. near Denfert-Rochereau metro. It's a melange of a penny candy shop, toy shop, and bakery. The focal point of the shop is a kitschy flaming pink dinette table piled with individually wrapped sables(butter cookies) in fun shapes, a glass dome with thick American-style cookies studded with M&M's and peanuts underneath it, and a wooden boxed filled the most adorable life-like carrots, asparagus, beans, mushrooms, and potatoes, all made out of praline. On the side walls made of neutral light colored wood were baking and kitchen accessories for kids, party paper plates and cups, and other numerous cutesy things.

I had enough cutesy for the moment and made a beeline to the glass counter to get to the serious stuff my sweet tooth was waiting for: the individual cakes, tartes, macarons, and cupcakes. Cleverly shaped and decorated, it was, as always, hard to choose just two (one for me and one for Vincent). Since Vincent is a carrot cake expert, the choice was simple: the carrot cake sphere topped with a spot of cream cheese and a carrot colored candied bunny rabbit. Of course for myself it wasn't so easy, so I asked the advice of the shop's owner Annais, and without hesitation said the Carambar tarte, one of her specialties. Carambar is a French caramel as popular in France as M & M's and Reese's pieces are to the U.S. Some of the other choices I mournfully gave up were the Bambi cupcake with pistachio cream, mini macaron flowers, cupcake d'amour with beets and cheese, sweet burger- two bun shaped almond macaroons with marzipan cheese in the middle, and a Nutella tarte.

Annais had to get back to work in the kitchen, so I asked if I could follow her and she kindly said yes. She was rolling out chocolate sable mixture and cutting out shapes with her molds while her bakery elves iced cookies and whisked some wicked chocolate mixture in a metal bowl. I stood there transfixed by the smell and finally had to wake myself up to get the hell out of there before I did something my waistline and sugar count would regret.

I later learned that Annais gives baking classes to kids and adults in her kitchen and she posts the monthly schedule on her website. Chez Bogato also does wild and creative customized special occasion cakes. I wish this passionate, talented lady the best of success with her special combination of French pastry making and touch of American cake and cookie style which I sometimes miss.

Vincent loved his carrot cake which he said was fluffy and light with just the right amount of icing and my Carambar tarte was- Ay, Caramba, Lucy- mucho delicious.

7 rue Liancourt, 14th arr.
Metro: Denfert-Rochereau
Open Tuesday- Saturday 10AM-7PM
Tel. 09 61 05 04 00
www.chezbogato.fr

Annais

Bakery elf

Coming soon: Eye Prefer New York Tours

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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