Who has heard of cronut? Or, more correctly, who hasn’t heard of it? Since NY pastry chef Dominique Ansel invented this croissant and doughnut hybrid last May, it has become the most talked and copied pastry around the world. As Dominique Ansel’s website states, cronut is “the most virally talked about dessert item in history” and this must be absolutely true.
Of course, I wanted to try the famous pastry and having woken up early this morning, I headed to Spring street’s number 189. At 7.50, just before the store opening, there were already maybe 40 or 50 people queuing. Someone in front of me commented that “no food is worth queuing”, me, I think, it is, if that food is really good. I’ve queued for burgers (Le Camion qui fume in Paris), ramen (Ippudo in New York) or, again, pastries and macarons (Pierre Hermé store on rue Bonaparte in Paris) and it is rewarding once you make the queue. Unfortunately, this time, I didn’t feel that way, when i finally entered the shop at 9 am and bought the cronut.
I like the idea of croissant and doughnut doughs mixed together (or whatever the recipe is), but the salted dulce de leche (the flavour of the month) filling and toppings were just too much and made the pastry too sweet and straightforward. Nothing new or revolutionary whatsoever. In a way, cronut is a gadget of the world of pastries. Everyone is talking about it, everyone wants to try it, but once you taste it, you are not sure it was really worth the hassle…
