The tea time by Christophe Michalak is a gourmet dream for anybody loving desserts. It can be enjoyed at the Plaza Athénée palace located in the famous Avenue Montaigne, next to the Champs Elysées.
We recently had the opportunity to taste Le Goûter by Michalak. It includes a selection of cakes, verrines and chocolates together with a hot drink. All this can be enjoyed in the refined atmosphere of La Galerie, with a view on the hotel inner courtyard. The refinement is reinforced by the presence of a harpist during the afternoon.
The specificity of this tea time is that it doesn’t include any salted meal or any scone, so only sweets here! But it isn’t an issue at all. It allows focusing on what Christophe Michalak masters, the desserts!
Please note that the menu regularly evolves based on the Chef inspiration.
So first, two chocolate bars are brought to wait for the rest. After, come the hot drinks. Had selected a tea and it was nice!
Then the first thing that will come to your mind when you see the desserts arriving on the multilevel trays is that those are really refined, true jewels. Nothing we had ever seen before. The colors, the texture, everything has been studied to make those really appealing.
During this afternoon, the tea time included a brioche with banana and lemon, a millefeuille, a choux pastry, a chocolate mousse, a tiramisu, a meringue, few chocolates and a vanilla cream verrine.
All are really tasty. I really loved the choux pastry, the meringue and the verrines. I rediscovered special tastes, usually unexpected. Then the balance between sugar and the rest of the ingredients is absolutely perfect.
I really advise you to not eat too much for the lunch before to be sure that you can fully enjoy Le Goûter by Michalak, which is part of our selection of luxury tea time in Paris.
About Christophe Michalak
Born in Senlis (France) in 1973, Christophe Michalak has been the pastry Chef of the Plaza Athénée hotel since 2000. Before that, he obtained his pastry degree in Angers. Then he has worked for prestigious hotels and brands such as Hilton in London and Bruxelles, the Negresco in Nice, Fauchon in Paris, Pierre Hermé in New York and Ladurée in Paris.
He has won the pastry World Cup in 2005 with the French team. He is also popular for few TV shows related to pastry he presented in 2012 and 2013.
Christophe Michalak is well known for several iconic desserts that he has revisited, some would even say reinvented, such as the salted butter caramel cream puff pastry.
About the Plaza Athénée
The Plaza Athénée proudly stands on the famous Avenue Montaigne, home of a lot of luxury stores. The history of the palace is tied to Sir Christian Dior fashion house history. The very first Dior store used to be located in the Avenue Montaigne and Christian Dior, himself, was a regular customer of the Plaza Athénée.
The Plaza Athénée is the prestigious host of the only Dior spa in the world. Guests can enjoy there treatments based on Dior products and specific protocols.
The Plaza Athénée has been fully renovated in 2014. Beside the Dior Spa and the Goûter by Michalak, guests can also enjoy the starred restaurant managed by Alain Ducasse, certainly one of the most talented Chefs in the world.