In a pastry world driven by a trend towards reducing variety in favor of mastery of a handful of forms (or even just one), Carl Marletti remains dedicated to the traditionally wide offering of forms and flavors. And what’s more, he somehow manages mastery in nearly all of them.
Walking into Carl Marletti’s shop is the first of the pleasures that awaits you. Down a quiet Latin Quarter side street just steps from the historic, cobbled rue Mouffetard, this boutique shows off what I so love about French pâtisseries: their ability to resemble jewelry shops, if even more enticing for yours truly, who is allergic to pretty much all metals. (And very few classic French pastries). The window is appetizing and bursting with color, and the folks behind it are knowledgeable and always willing to offer insights and advice on the seasonal creations or unfamiliar cakes.
If pressed, I would divide Marletti’s window into a few categories. You have tartlets, like the bright, very-zingy lemon curd (which has proven too acidic for some, but for me is pitch perfect). You have the macarons big and small, which are unfortunately a bit too sweet and border on cloying; I usually give these a miss.
You have the entremets, which might take classic forms like the millefeuille or opéra, or more novel forms, like the Désir, a study in chocolate.
You have a few examples of the contemporary creations that seem to me to be too soft-on-soft-on-soft, with creams and gelées and soft biscuits all held together with more gelatin than I ever really need to consume.
You have traveling cakes like canelés or gâteau basque or financiers, which to my mind Marletti has mastered. (His citrus gâteau basque, in all its simplicity, is one of my favorite pastries in the city.)
And then you have the chou pastry creations, ranging from fat religieuses flavored with coffee or chocolate or rose to an excellent praline Paris-Brest to the cloying-but pretty Lily Valley, a study in violet and cassis named after his florist wife, to the éclairs.
Do not miss the éclairs.
On one recent visit, I took my own advice, opting for one of the seasonal flavors that regularly join caramel, chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio. This one, a marriage of coconut, yuzu, lime, and kumquat, was fresh and vibrant with citrus and positively beautiful. The coconut itself was subtle, but the brightness of the citrus, for me, made it a winner.
The Conversation is a cake I had never seen before encountering it chez Marletti: A flaky pastry case surrounds a dense orange blossom water-scented frangipane filling, for a hand-held, omnipresent answer to one of my favorite seasonal creations, the galette des rois.
It’s neither as rich nor as buttery as this Epiphany creation, but it definitely scratches the almond paste itch.
But perhaps my favorite was the pastry that hewed closest to tradition: The Opéra here is a marvel of textural interplay, with soft layers of genoise imbued with coffee syrup sandwiched around coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache. Topped with a thick layer of cocoa powder, it reminded me quite a bit of a far neater play on tiramisu.
Marletti has a host of stalwarts in addition to a handful of seasonal creations, and with a range this wide, it’ll be a long time before I’ve run out of things to taste.
Carl Marletti – 51 Rue Censier, 75005