Cupcakes, donuts, and cookies. They’re all good old American standbys, but across the Atlantic, they also sing their siren song to the French, who love them—at least, they love the versions that Mélodie Asseraf makes.
Her secret? She deconstructs the sweets, and remakes them with the best ingredients possible (and absolutely no preservatives for the French, she said), and in ways that appeal to her own sensibility.
She always hated the way that nougat normally sticks to teeth, so she made nougat that doesn’t. Her donuts are bite-sized, and baked, not fried. Her cookies are plain luxurious, “gooey in the middle, crunchy on the outside”—the chocolate and cream cookies with caramelized hazelnuts are unbelievable. The marshmallows (think flavors like poppy flowers, or banana with coconut shavings for piña colada)are light as a clouds, and melt on contact with the tongue.
Though her parents are French and she was born in Paris, Asseraf grew up in New York City. Her introduction to the world of making sweets was through what seemed a magical visit to the kitchens of the Plaza Hotel, when she was a child.
It wasn’t until after college that she decided to make a vocation of pastry, studying at the French Culinary Institute by day and interning at François Payard at nights. Payard saw her talent and sent her to work for Pierre Hermé in Paris.
She opened her store in February this year, after working almost three years out of her grandmother’s kitchen on her business, Les Sucreries de Mélodie.
At the recent London and Paris chocolate shows last month, she hired Popcorn Production to create a cupcake dress for the chocolate fashion show, worn by one of her store staff (she didn’t want someone who looked starved, she said), in the dress and style of Marie Antoinette.
On the runway, the model reached for one of the cupcakes and took a good bite, to the delight of the audience, said Asseraf.
Asseraf will be heading back to New York City in November 2014 to introduce her products here, in a sort of 540 degree life trajectory, from Paris to New York, to Paris, and back to New York.
“I really miss New York,” she said. “I miss the people. French people don’t understand why I’m smiling all the time.” Just maybe, they don’t realize that when you’re in the business of sweets, and enjoy bringing people back to their childhoods, there’s a lot to smile about.
