Bouchon Bakery

Posted by Edmund in Bakeries & Sweets, Featured Articles, New York City | 1 comment

Cuisine: French and American Baked Goods.
Location: 10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019-1158.
Price: $3 for a Large Macaroon, $3.50 for the Fuggedaboutit & Chocolate Croissant, $2.50-$3.50 for Cookies.

There’s nothing like sitting in a café, drinking a nice cup of coffee, and enjoying some French pastry in the afternoon—relaxing, tasty, and social. Unfortunately, fast-paced American culture doesn’t typically value that type of leisurely afternoon stop, nor do American bakeries typically produce pastries delicious enough to stop you in your tracks in the middle of the day.

Bouchon Bakery attempts to set a new standard. The brainchild of Thomas Keller—a man with so many Best Chef and Best Restaurant awards that you’d be hard-pressed to fit them all in one room—Bouchon aims for the elegance of a French patisserie amidst the hustle-and-bustle, fast-paced world of New York City.

Thankfully, Chef Keller doesn’t forget about his American roots, as Bouchon features a whole line of American-style cookies and treats, infusing such treats with an air of French refinement. Among the more memorable are the Fuggedaboutit, a chocolate-covered cookie with a layer of toffee and nuts, a.k.a. Snickers on crack; the TKOs, a play on oreo cookies (one of Chef Keller’s favorite snacks, oddly enough); and Banana Nut Muffins.

Unfortunately, neither Chef Keller’s reputation nor his semi-inventive blend of French baking and American concepts is enough to remedy for baked goods that simply do not match the excellence of true French baking.

For example, the rather large chocolate macaroon, while soft, doesn’t quite fall apart like the buttery macaroons in France. Still, it comes with a thick layer of very creamy, rich dark chocolate ganache. It’s also sweet enough for a macaroon, but not so much that it distracts from the chocolate taste. Score: 3.9/5.0.

The Fuggedaboutit (Chocolate-Covered Cookie with a Layer of Toffee and a Nutty Crunch) at first seems like a better version of Snickers. It’s hard to the bite, especially with the layer of toffee, but the texture is still great: crispy (from the chocolate), gooey (from the toffee), and crunchy (from the cookie).

The flavor, though, is a mixed bag. The toffee makes the sweetness of the already overly sweet milk chocolate go through the roof. The combo of sugar and syrup bogs the whole snack down with too much richness. I’d have liked a bit more of the delicious wafer and nutty flavors. Score: 3.0/5.0.

Worst of all, though, was the chocolate croissant. While I wouldn’t recommend either the macaroon or the Fuggedabout it, I wouldn’t call either bland. The chocolate croissant manages to hit that low point. For the first time in my life, I think there may actually be too much chocolate in this croissant, muddling the flavor. To be fair, the syrup is rich, creamy, and intense, while the flakiness of the shell is satisfying at times. The intensity and bitterness of the chocolate and the lack of much sugar, though, overpower those positives as the dark chocolate custard filling oozes all over as you bite into the flaky dark chocolate shell. A good dose of butter could have helped. Score: 1.5/5.0.

Moreover, locating Bouchon amidst the frenzy of a mall doesn’t do much for the ambience—no matter how classy that mall may be (it does, after all, house Chef Keller’s masterpiece of a restaurant, Per Se).

Of course, the tempting displays of infinite varieties of baked goods, all perfectly presented with the pinpoint precision that is a mark of Keller’s cooking will undoubtedly unsuspecting diners and shoppers. Yet Bouchon simply does not live up to the temptation, particularly at the elevated prices that its refinement may cost.

Scores

Ambience: 3.0/5.0
Taste: 2.8/5.0
Value: 1.6/5.0
Overall Score, as a Bakery (excludes ambience): 2.3/5.0
Overall Score, as a Café:  2.5/5.0