LAURENT DUCHÊNE Paris 13ème

A classic pastry line from an MOF house

Laurent Duchêne opened in the 13th arrondissement in 2001, after a Paris career and competition work that brought the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title in 1993 and a coaching role at the Coupe du Monde de Pâtisserie in 1999. The line here is broad rather than built around one signature: individual pastries, shareable pastries, breads, viennoiseries, macarons, biscuits, confectionery, chocolate bars, spreads, snack chocolate, travel cakes and savoury traiteur items all sit inside the same programme.

Seasonal fruit work is where the calendar shows. In strawberry season the case carries fraisier, strawberry tart and tartlet, raspberry tart and tartlet, a passion-fruit and raspberry tart and a lemon tartlet. Chocolate holds its own place, from the chocolates in the display through to a Flan Chocolat that gets its own billing.

The Paris counter moves like a bakery

The setting is a boulangerie-pâtisserie counter with takeaway rather than a seated café. In practice the visit is glass cases, a quick read of the display and an order placed standing up. The room is bright and easy to browse, with chocolates shown prominently and an exterior closer to a traditional neighbourhood cake shop than to a modernised concept.

It draws a crowd and a real queue at busy times, which fits a shop with a local rather than a tourist reputation. The mood is practical and product-led: bread, croissants, tartlets, chocolate pieces and classic pastries, with the counter moving briskly enough that it pays to know roughly what you want.

Order the croissant first, then follow the classics

Breads and viennoiseries take the largest share of the house’s own menu, and the croissant is the piece to start with. It can sell out. The version filled with chocolate and praliné is the variation worth taking when it is there, and the breads are strong enough to justify a loaf on the way out.

Galettes are the other seasonal draw, with pistachio and cherry and a plain frangipane among the ones that get singled out. For chocolate, the house makes its own bars and spreads alongside the display pieces, so a bar travels as well as a travel cake does. Build the order the way a traditional Paris pâtisserie visit is built: one laminated item, one fruit tart or éclair, then chocolate or a travel cake to take away.