How we work
In our pastry shop we almost always work with chocolate
In the studio
In our pastry shop we almost always work with chocolate. That is why everyone who starts in our studio must first work in the chocolate department for a year before they can move on to the pastry shop. Chocolate is not an obvious product. You have to know how to work with it, without being afraid of it .
It all starts with tempering . If your chocolate is not at the right temperature, it will not crystallize properly. If it is too soft, you cannot cut it properly, which means you cannot make a nice praline.
In addition, you also need to be able to balance chocolate. Otherwise, the moisture can cause the praline to not have a long shelf life because it can get moldy faster. And there are many more challenges that we prepare every future employee for.
Compared to a chef, we are more like pharmacists . Our work is more precise, where everything has to be weighed. The temperature at which we mix a preparation has to be right or it becomes too heavy. That is typical of pastry: do one thing wrong and the biscuit collapses.
With our pralines it's really all about the filling . That's why we make the layer around the praline as thin as possible so that the focus is almost entirely on what's inside.
For all creations, Bernard and Jan work together with Gunther van Essche, head of the studio : “If someone has an idea, we discuss it, try it out and think about the details together. Thanks to that cross-pollination, you achieve fantastic results.”
In the shop and the tearoom
Friendly, open and approachable . We want to radiate this to our customers. Nothing is ever too much for us. We listen carefully to what our customers need and try to respond to them as best as possible. We then pass those needs on to the studio.
Because we are located in the diamond district, we receive a lot of Indians. Jainism is an Indian religion where you are not allowed to eat eggs. And so at their request we make pastry without eggs. We go far to please our customers and it is also nice that customers challenge us to be creative.
