Cedric Grolet at The Berkeley

Any pastry fan worth their sugar has heard of Cedric Grolet, the king of French patisserie with a 2.5 million strong Instagram following.

His photogenic pastries haven’t hampered his success, but this isn’t style over substance. The chef is obsessive over how things taste too. His London outpost is found in The Berkeley and offers diners a unique seven-course tasting menu of pastry.

Guests are seated around the kitchen and served at their seats by a whole team of Grolet’s disciples. Interaction is encouraged, so conversation might range from how to sculpt white chocolate to look like lemon rind through to how you become a pastry chef when you’re vegan.

Six out of seven plates are sweet, and the menu changes every few days. There are no shortcuts. The custard and chocolate filled Pain Suisse is made with cross laminated croissant dough for soft layers inside and an exterior that shatters with a tap of your knife. Everything is precisely hand piped. Even the salad dressing on the savoury course is made up of multiple ingredients.

Standout sweets came in the form of a rich little hazelnut tart filled with a mini surprise choux bun and a wince-inducing white chocolate lemon that was so sharp it bore a convincing similarity to its unadulterated namesake. In fact, for a patisserie offering nothing here is too sweet. Intensified flavours are employed over sugar and the results are crisp, clean creations that have distinct personalities. An Îles flottantes – of sorts – is fun with its marshmallowy flower-shaped meringue, while the grown-up ‘vanilla pod’ is serious in its responsibility as the closing act.

It’s a bit of a lazy analogy but it’s sort of like Willy Wonka for grown-ups – it’s a look into the inner workings of a culinary creative mastermind and it’s fantastic in its frivolity. Many will baulk at the associated £135 price tag, but when you’re sipping on Champagne and see the mind-blowing accuracy that goes into every single bite you could nearly consider it a sweet deal.

Renowned French pastry chef Cedric Grolet’s first patisserie outside of France has taken up residence within The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge. Widely considered as one of the best pastry chefs in the world, Cédric began his career at five-star Parisian hotel Le Meurice in 2012, climbing the ranks before opening his own patisserie La Pâtisserie du Meurice by Cédric Grolet in 2018. It’s here that he developed his signature style of creating trompe l’oeil fruit and flowers, making his bakes instantly recognisable, and in 2019 he launched Cédric Grolet Opéra which is devoted to said floral creations.  

Cedric’s project at The Berkeley is twofold: customers can order his signature viennoiserie, cookies, cakes and standout patisseries to takeaway – all of which are made fresh on the day – or they can book in for the full Cédric Grolet experience at Cédric Grolet's Counter which hosts a like-no-other (and very sweet) dining experience. Guests are seated around a single counter and treated to multiple courses of (mostly) sweet patisseries, including one savoury and five sweet dishes, plus a glass of Champagne. Part of the fun is being able to see how the chefs create the dainty delights, with each party assigned their own personal chef to serve them throughout the service and allowing guests to ask questions about the meal. All the final touches to each dish are finished at the table in front of the guests to add an extra touch of theatre to the experience.  

Cedric Grolet’s Counter is served in The Pastry Lab, which has been designed by French interior designer Remi Tessier with polished stainless steel, scallop floor tiles to represent an apple tart and walls carved with fruits and flowers to reflect Cedric’s signature style.  

Guests can also stop by throughout the day to sample Cédric Grolet's ‘petit déjeuner’ of viennoiserie, signature desserts and goûter (meaning ‘to taste’ or ‘snack’ in French). The goûter menu features favoruites from his patisserie including an exclusive Scone, the Noisette and the Citron.