Then there are lollipops that look like pieces of jellyroll on a stick. In fact, they are pieces of bittersweet chocolate jellyroll cake, but there’s no jelly anywhere: the cake is rolled around foie gras.
Finally, because every birthday should be celebrated with a cake, there’s the Ice Cube in the picture. Looking like a velvety Rubik’s Cube, the cake’s elements include: dark chocolate ice, ice cream, dulce de leche and hazelnut dacquoise.
Gaston Lenotre, the founder of this remarkable company, has been called the father of modern French pastry, in great measure because of his forward thinking creations, but also because of the systems he developed to produce polished, grand-quality pastry on a large scale; the schools he created to train professionals, Ecole Lenotre (I went to “chocolate college” there years ago and treasure the experience), and amateurs, Pavillon d’Elysee; and the hundreds of pastry chefs he inspired, nurtured and launched, among them Pierre Herme, who apprenticed under him.
Happy Birthday! Here’s to another 50 delicious years!