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Connaught’s patisserie in the pink, despite pandemic

The Connaught didn’t let a pandemic interrupt its plans. The London luxury hotel opened The Connaught Patisserie in October, and since then it has sold out of pastries almost every day, even during the city’s repeated lockdowns.

Crafted by Ab Rogers Design, the patisserie showcases the work of Nicolas Rouzaud, executive pastry chef, who joined the hotel six years ago, in part because The Connaught’s owner had always planned to open a patisserie. “This project really started two years ago,” Rouzaud says. “The opening date was definitely delayed by the pandemic.”

The space, which boasts rosa tea pink marble floors, pink polished walls and hand-blown hot pink crystal lights, used to be a luxury shop, but the hotel purchased the space and expanded the area; the entrance is completely separate from the hotel, which has a 2-Michelin-starred restaurant and several other F&B outlets.

The pink interior of the Connaught's Patisserie
The pink interior of the Connaught’s Patisserie

Contributed by Jeanette Hurt

“I’m in charge of the afternoon tea at the Hélène Darroze (one of the restaurants), where you have your scones, your little pastries, but the pastries in the patisserie are not the same. The shop is completely different so that you have a very different experience here,” Rouzaud says.

For the first three weeks the shop was open, Rouzaud and his staff made and sold 11 kinds of pastries for takeout and eat-in. They also baked fresh madeleines about six times a day to give to customers sitting at tables or queuing outside. “We have a little oven in the shop, so when we open the door, it’s like home, and you smell the madeleines a la minute, there’s nothing better with coffee,” Rouzaud says. “Even if you are a luxury property, people always appreciate when you give them something special.”

Customers enjoyed the madeleines as well as the signature pastry, a milk chocolate confection with roasted hazelnuts and a gluten-free sponge base that’s made in a custom greyhound mold, which recalls the hotel logo, with specialty coffees, cappuccinos and even Champagne.

When London experienced its second lockdown in November, Rouzaud and his team quickly switched to only takeout and delivery. “It didn’t change our operations that much,” he says. “Whether you are in France, Italy or Spain, you go in a pastry shop, and you buy your cake, and you go home.”

Nicolas Rouzaud, executive pastry chef, with the Patisserie's signature cakes
Nicolas Rouzaud, executive pastry chef, with the Patisserie’s signature cakes

One advantage: They already were using the proper packaging for takeout. “Our boxes protect the very fragile pastries,” he says. “I don’t want a guest to travel 30 minutes or an hour and not have the same experience because maybe their (pastry) dog was broken.”

In December, the hotel’s maintenance staff built a wooden hut in front, where customers could purchase mulled wine, hot chocolate, breads like stollen, and even a white chocolate version of the greyhound cake with a red scarf that. “London didn’t have much of a Christmas market so we decided to bring a little bit of the Christmas market outside of our patisserie,” Rouzaud says. “It brought a little bit of joy to people who were enjoying the lights.”

They kept the hut in January and have switched to selling crepes. “We’re making some beautiful pastries, but a crepe made with Nutella a la minute … it’s hard to compete with that,” he says, adding that the aroma often leads to impulse purchases.

Rouzaud was planning some special pastries and a limited-edition signature pastry for Valentine’s Day – “You can’t be the same,” he says. “For regulars, you have to do something new and positive all the time and be on top of it.” He would also prefer to focus on quality, not quantity. “I would rather keep the quality than to make a pastry urgently, and then the taste is not the same, and the guest will be disappointed.”

The shop was designed to mimic a jewelry box, with the pastries as the jewels. “The lights shine on the glaze of the chocolate eclairs and the fruit pastries,” he says. “The main experience is when you enter, it’s a jolie (beautiful) shop. We bring people joy, and that’s especially important now.” 

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