Dominique Ansel's New Bakery Opens
Papa d'Amour opens tomorrow in New York City, offering his take on Asian bread culture
Chef Dominique Ansel and his pastries have been going viral since before viral was a thing.
When Ansel introduced his Cronut at his eponymous Dominique Ansel Bakery in 2013, New York City (and the world) swooned over his invention that could best be described as the love child of a croissant and a doughnut. Instantly, the Cronut became the toast of the town, with newspapers, bloggers, and a fairly new social media platform called Instagram spreading the word about this tasty treat.
People waited for hours to secure one of the pastries that take three days to make and are offered in rotating flavors.
The frenzy became such that Cronut lovers would hire people to wait in line for them, as if they were securing Taylor Swift tickets. 12 years later (to the very month), the Cronut is going strong.
Now, the master chef has announced the opening of a new shop and an entirely new concept. Papa d'Amour, chef Ansel's newest bakery concept, opens tomorrow, May 22nd, at 8 a.m. at 64 University Place in New York City
At Papa d’Amour, the chef will explore Asian bread culture, taking inspiration from fluffy shokupan and milkbreads, steamed buns, egg tarts, flaky layered pastries, and more. In addition to Asian bread culture, look for playful “nods” to New York City staples like hot dogs and giant pretzels and the chef’s French pastry expertise.
The new bakery is a labor of love for the chef. Its name — “Papa d’Amour” is what his children, Celian (5) and Elise "Mei Mei" (2), affectionately call him. The babies, who are Taiwanese and French, pay tribute to their combined heritage.
The menu reads like a fever dream of everything you might want to eat in this world. Savory items include pretzel salt egg tart, brushed with brown butter with crunchy pretzel salt studded in the crust; a scallion basil blossom, a nod to Taiwanese streetside scallion pancakes, with a flaky laminated crust that you can peel away; and a kurobuta hot dog spiral with sticky rice and sesame furikake.
Freshly baked shokupan loaves are available to purchase whole and are sliced and used for sandos and toasts. There’s also a steam station for baos, including an egg and tomato breakfast bao, and a hot & cold red bean butter croissant bao.
Sweet offerings include a taro lace batter mochi donut, inspired by the taro puff and a banana bread Malay cake.
If you’re looking for the next food sensation for your Instagram or TikTok followers, check out the “jam jar” cakes: Slice them open to reveal a molten center of fruity, jammy goodness. There are four different varieties, but I want to check out the strawberry jam jar, a chiffon cake filled with fresh and confit strawberries, olive oil ganache, and basil seeds; and the black sesame jam jar, filled with black sesame and coffee jelly.
What item will take the crown as the reigning pastry king of social media? We’ll find out in the days to come, for sure.