Traiteur de Paris

I've reviewed many wholesale bakeries before, but most have been US based.  Traiteur de Paris, as you may guess from the name, is actually a French foodservice distributor, based in, yup, Paris.  They do however have a US based distribution channel, so I was able to order some of their goods.

"Your Personal French Chef Is Ready to Serve You! Traiteur de Paris - celebrated for their frozen hors d’oeuvres, accompaniments and desserts - offers true haute cuisine, heated and served by great restaurants, hotels and caterers around the globe. Once sworn to secrecy, this ultimate Chef’s helper is now available for gourmets and aspiring Chefs at home."

From their own accolades, their offerings sound great.  The "ultimate Chef's helper!"  Great to show off to your friends and relatives and make them think you are a great home cook!  Served at fine establishments!  Oh my.

Traiteur de Paris makes a large variety of items, but it is only the dessert line that I focused on.

Lemon Meringue Pie.

"Tart, fresh, and light, this lemon meringue pie offers a mix of wonderful textures and a presentation that is at once modern and elegant.

This incomparable dessert is made up of a bed of crispy butter shortbread topped with a creamy and lightly tart lemon custard and a dollop of Italian meringue.

As the final touch, the lemon meringue pie is sprinkled with flaked almonds, as well as orange and lemon zest for a refined finish."

Like most foodservice products, this arrives frozen, which seemed ambitious to me for meringue.  And you could tell, it was very deflated.

The crust was described as "crispy butter shortbread", but, that really isn't what it seemed like to me.  It was gritty and crispy, not buttery, and not anything like shortbread.  It crumbled like rubble.  And it had no flour, doesn't shortbread have flour?  It wasn't bad necessarily, but really strange texture and not shortbread.

The lemon layer I hated, as I generally don't like lemon desserts.  It was so tart and eggy.  And the deflated meringue?  About as good as it looked.

I did like the candied nuts.

I extracted the crust and nuts, and added my own whipped cream, and just made my own little crumble dessert, and was happy enough, but, uh, I don't think that counts as endorsing this product.

**+.

Gianduja Shortbread Cake.

"The Chefs of Traiteur de Paris have joined chocolate fondant cream and Gianduja nuts with crumble crunch to create a mix of textures and flavors that will dance in your mouth.

Ready to serve, the Gianduja shortbread cake is enhanced with a gourmet design composed of almond matchsticks, crushed hazelnuts, bits of candied orange, and crumble crunch."

This was ... pretty.  And it sure sounded fancy.  But I hated it.

The crust was gritty, which wasn't a problem itself, but the flavor was awful, I think I just didn't like the almond powder in it.

The "chocolate fondant cream" was indeed chocolatey and creamy, but, it wasn't particularly good.

The toppings were a mix of crushed nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios) and bits of candied orange, all of which kinda contrasted.  Not a fan.  But it was pretty?

* ... for looks.

Panna Cotta Mango Shortbread.

"A light and refreshing dessert, with a sweet note of coconut." -- GourmetXpress, distributor

"Refreshing and modern, the Panna cotta and mango shortbread is the ideal dessert for the summer.

Enhanced by a touch of coconut, the panna cotta is delicately placed on a elegant coconut crumble base. All is covered with a layer of gelled mango and several pieces of candied mango." -- Traiter de Paris

Since I adore panna cotta, I was pretty interested in this one, although, um, clearly it wasn't quite what I was thinking of when I think of panna cotta ...

This was ... ok.

The crust was my favorite part, a coconut crumble, kinda sweet.  I wanted it with whipped cream.

The panna cotta layer, in the middle, was highly mediocre.  Smooth, decent texture, but, rather flavorless and uninteresting.

The top was the worst part, just, mango flavored goo.

Overall, nothing wrong with it exactly, besides the goo factor, but, just not very good.

**+.

CARAMEL DELIGHT WITH SALTED BUTTER WITH GUÉRANDE SALT.

"Our Caramel delight with salted butter with Guérande salt is a dessert made of 100% caramel which have your caramel-loving gourmands swoon.

Offering a wonderful mix of textures, it is composed of a crumble base, topped with creamy caramel and an airy cream perfumed with caramel, all punctuated with crisp crumble bits. The surprise of this dessert lies in its tender salted butter caramel center (with Guérande salt)." -- Traiteur de Paris

"A crumble base is topped with a light toffee cream with a delicious filling of soft caramel Toffee and Guerande salt." -- GourmetXpress, Distributor

How amazing did this sound?  Salted caramel.  Crumble.  "Airy cream".  It sounded amazing!

How amazing did it taste?  0 amazing.  Actually, no, 11000 amazing.  It was awful.

The crust was way too crumbly, and fell apart immediately.  It tasted like sawdust.

The layer above that was sweet, clearly caramely, so I guess it had that going for it if you want way overpowering sweetness.

The layer on the very top was also too sweet, but at least it was fluffy.  The crumble on top?  More sawdust.

The description was right about one part though - the only surprise was the gooey caramel in the center.  It was a surprise in that it was decent, unlike the rest of it.

Clearly, this dessert was not a winner, and, it seemed so promising!

*.

Fondant with Taïnori® chocolate from Valrhona.

"The pastry chefs of Traiteur de Paris have selected the internationally renowned Grand Cru Taïnori® chocolate to create an exceptional dessert. Containing 64% cacao from the Dominican Republic, this chocolate has an intense and fruity flavor profile.

The Fondant with Taïnori® chocolate from Valrhona® is meltingly soft with a smooth and gooey chocolate center that yields a rich gustatory experience." -- Traiteur de Paris

"Made in France, our fondant is made with 22% of VALRHONA® TAÏNORI® Chocolate from Dominican Republic (64% cocoa) and premium ingredients, such as whole eggs and natural vanilla flavor. Its fruity and intense flavor gives its genuinely unique signature." -- White Toque

Valrhona makes good chocolate.  I know this, I've reviewed their products before.  So, I was excited to try this.

But it wasn't served hot (!), nor with whipped cream or ice cream (!!), both of which were mind boggling to me.  Molten chocolate cake needs to be warm, and it needs something to cut the richness!  Clearly, not the fault of Traiteur de Paris, but rather of our catering team, but still.  Criminal!

So I tried a bite at room temperature, to evaluate, and then took it home to warm up, and serve properly.

At room temperature, it was fine, but boring.  Fairly loose chocolate pudding-like center.  Cake around the outside.  Fine, good quality chocolate, but not particularly interesting.

Fondant with Taïnori® chocolate from Valrhona: Warm!

Once warmed up, it was better.

The center really did turn molten.

But the chocolate flavor wasn't nearly as deep as I expected for something made with such high end chocolate.  I was surprised.

Still, fine, but a molten chocolate cake should be more than fine.

***.

Fondant with Taïnori® chocolate from Valrhona.

The catering team brought these back a few months later.  This time, also stone cold, and it didn't look like they had even *tried* to warm them up, whereas before I think they had warmed them, just, way in advance of service?  These looks like solid cakes.

At room temp, yup, just a soft chocolate cake.  Microwaving it made it properly molten, and adding mexican chocolate ice cream topped it off nicely.

Not my top choice of dessert, but, decent enough.

***.