Jérôme De Oliveira Grasse - Pâtisserie - Chocolaterie

Chocolate cigars and savoury panettone

Two things define the counter here. The first is a box of Cigares en chocolat, chocolate cigars filled with a smoked grand cru ganache built on Cuban chocolate, where the smoke is the point rather than a garnish. The second is Panettone salé, the savoury panettone, including a version worked with chorizo and confit tomatoes that pushes the loaf away from breakfast and towards the apéritif hour. The house groups both under its incontournables, the short list of pieces it treats as essential, and they are the clearest signal of what this shop is for. Both are sold as objects to carry away rather than pastries to eat standing at a counter, which tells you how the shop expects to be used.

A champion’s shop rather than a bread counter

The Grasse address is a branch of the pastry and chocolate house founded by Jérôme de Oliveira, Champion du Monde de Pâtisserie in 2009, and it carries that identity into a focused selection. It sits in the Bois de Grasse activity zone rather than the old town, which suits its purpose: a modern shop for finished pastry, chocolate boxes, cakes and gifts. Baguettes, sourdough and a daily viennoiserie rotation are not the business. What is on offer instead runs through Les Cakes, chocolate work, and hazelnut items made with Noisettes du Piémont. Behind the two essentials the range widens into individual pastries, chocolate bars and coffrets, seasonal formats and cakes made for a table. The house is listed as a Relais Desserts member boutique for 2026, the association that gathers high-level pastry chefs.

How to build a box

Start with the chocolate cigars, since the smoked ganache is the most specific thing the house makes and the format travels well. Add a savoury panettone if the visit is heading towards a table rather than a dessert plate, and take the chorizo and confit tomato version if you want the more assertive of the two. From there the cake range fills the sweet side of the box, and the Piedmont hazelnut items are the easiest thing to carry home to someone else. Read the whole counter before choosing: this is a shop built for occasions, so the choice is about which pieces sit together rather than which single pastry to eat now. The chocolate side moves more often than the panettone does, so it is worth asking what has just come in.