Regressive, the taste of lost paradises
Who doesn't chew on gummy bears, nibble on their petit beurre cookies, or split an Oreo in two to lick the vanilla cream from the world's best-selling biscuit? Nearly everyone has their favorite childhood treat! This is a growing trend: regressive food.
Who doesn't chew on gummy bears, nibble on their petit beurre cookies, or split an Oreo in two to lick the vanilla cream from the world's best-selling biscuit? Nearly everyone has their favorite childhood treat! This is a growing trend: regressive food.
There is an irresistible urge among pastry chefs to create comforting treats that evoke the sweetness of childhood for a stressed adult generation. In France, in response to current adversities despite inflation after lockdowns and global conflicts, and each manifestation of climate disruption, people consume 8.19 kilograms of cookies and cakes per year, according to the latest statistics. Sébastien Bouillet asserts that we can draw inspiration from supermarket bestsellers to create something better. François Perret shares this enthusiasm for recreating childhood pleasures; he offers in a Parisian palace, the Ritz, those little cakes that were found in boxes when he was a child, as a way to reclaim a pastry art "that has been taken over by industrial producers." This jest has been taken seriously: the four products chosen here are artisan versions of popular supermarket items, which include 80 types of cookies and cakes, amounting to 551,670 tons of products that generate a turnover of 3.6 billion euros.
THE PETIT BEURRE
By Vincent Guerlais
"Louis Lefèvre-Utile, who transformed the family biscuit company into a modern enterprise in the heart of Nantes, created a type of shortbread biscuit in 1886: the Petit-Beurre LU. This biscuit, which can be enjoyed every day, is also a mental exercise. Originally measuring 7 cm—1 cm for each day of the week—its 52 teeth symbolize the number of weeks in a year; the 4 corners of the biscuit represent the seasons; and the 24 small dots on its surface denote the 24 hours of the day. More than a billion of these biscuits are sold each year.
Nantes-based Vincent Guerlais has made his version the signature confection of his chocolate shop, an iconic embodiment of regression. He produces them in three sizes: Grand, Medium, and Baby (with a caramel hazelnut recipe). Guerlais's unique touch is the chocolate he uses to coat his Petit-Beurre biscuits—dark, milk, or blond chocolate from his own cocoa factory—and the heart filled with a subtle cream made from Piedmont hazelnuts and crispy bits of shortbread biscuit.
21,60€ - the box of 9 P'tit Beurre
11 rue Franklin
44000 Nantes
vincentguerlais.com
MARSHMALLOW BEARS
By Cyril Lignac
Goldilocks, the Sandman, Teddy Bear... the plump shape of the bear fills our childhood and confectionery with sweetness. Born in Northern France in 1962 thanks to Michel Cathy, then head of production at the Cémoi chocolate factory in Villeneuve d'Ascq, the marshmallow bear has been comforting both young and old sweet tooths for over 60 years. French pastry masters, especially Cyril Lignac, have captured this nostalgia by incorporating this iconic figure into their creations, blurring the lines between traditional pastry and confectionery.
With a shell of dark, milk, or dulcey chocolate that cracks under the bite to reveal a melting vanilla marshmallow, these bears are an invitation to indulgence. Available in XL size for solitary appetites, in metal tins of sixteen, or as spectacular tiered displays of thirty, they are even reinvented with a crunchy praline heart, hazelnut, promising an even more indulgent and regressive experience.
Ourson Guimauve XL Lait, Noir or Dulcey - 6,00€
Chocolaterie Cyril Lignac
25 rue Chanzy
75011 Paris
gourmand-croquant.com
THE LITTLE ROCK
By Sébastien Bouillet
Test the sweet tooths: say 'rocher' and they will answer 'Ferrero' if they are from the '90s, or 'Suchard' if they are older. As the third reference in Kraft Foods' Out-of-Home chocolate confectionery portfolio in 2010, the traditional Suchard recipe created in 1948 is a landmark in chocolate history: one Suchard Rocher is eaten every second worldwide! Ferrero is also the 29th favorite brand of the French, according to the 2023 Observatory of Favorite French Brands.
Sébastien Bouillet, a Lyonnais and one of the 400 artisan chocolatiers in France, enjoys playing with childhood memories and guilty chocolate pleasures. As a nod to this, he created the P'tit Caillou. The Bouillet shops are located a stone’s throw from the large Caillou, a symbol in the Croix-Rousse district. The P'tit Caillou features a hazelnut praliné from Piedmont with a caramelized hazelnut center, coated in 40% milk chocolate, with crispy crepe flakes and crushed hazelnuts...
14,85€ - 150g
Maison Bouillet
15 Place de la Croix Rousse
69004 Lyon
@bouillet_lyon_tokyo
MADELEINES
De François Perret
It is the emblem of nostalgia, etched in our memory by an unforgettable baking aroma, an unmatched soaked texture, and a sweet hazelnut flavor that evokes a family moment or a childhood snack after school. The famous madeleine, the one from Proust, is now elevated at the Comptoir du Ritz to become François's madeleine. François Perret, the pastry chef at the renowned palace for the past eight years, has made it his mission to take us back to our childhood and restore the afternoon snack to its rightful place, through his spectacular reinterpretations of classic treats like marble cakes and fruit barquettes, as well as a range of madeleines that has become his signature. Classic madeleines or those filled with chocolate, lemon, caramel, raspberry, or passion fruit, available individually or in very chic boxes bearing the chef’s likeness, contrast the simplicity and purity of this little shell with the opulence and gold of the boutique, making it more accessible.
Box of madeleines - 5 : 30€ / 8 : 43€ / 12 : 62€
38 rue Cambon
75001 Paris
ritzparislecomptoir.com
By Audrey Vacher et Marion Thillou
Photo Stéphane Bahic
