The art of French pastries in London: Maison Bertaux

As I have been promising, I’m finally writing an entry in ENGLISH, and it is that only in English I can tell this story that I care depely in my heart. Pastries and London go so well together, specially in this iconic place in Soho. There are few places that are very close to my heart in London, specially if we are talking about food, one of them is this one. This a personal story, sharing a bit about me in this.

Hello and Welcome to my food Blog “Kitchen and Letters”

This morning as I was having breakfast, I was talking ( I always talk about food and share memories during breakfast, more and more lately) we where talking about the places that refuses to change they way they do business and their approach to customers, the only place that came to mind is this one. Maison Bertaux is a little, cute, unique, iconic, eccentric, eclectic, pastry in Greek St, in Soho in London. The first time I went there was shortly after my first week working in Mezzo restaurant in Soho, a waitress from Uruguay from the restaurant invited me for a coffee there for our lunch break, I have not thought about this in a while, however as I was telling the story the image of me entering this coffee shop for the first time flashed over my memories bringing them all back. As I stood there watching the clasy, yet moody ”old” french lady demanding and ordering clients to act in a way, there was so much information, from art, to old memories, resemblance of old art shows, and OMG the pastries! it was love at first sight, I could wait to order and eat, and come back for more, even when my budget was limited, I wanted to try it all, I did not care for the moody french lady, but i did care for the flavour, I wanted to experience it! To be honest, I loved the moody french lady, that gave unique experience to the place too. It give it the sort of ”Yes, customers tend to be right, BUT you are here for the food not my mood” It was a like a mouthful of fresh air, working for the restaurant industry, where I was tought that the customer is always right, even when they sometimes are rude, mean or demanding or all of the above, seeing this lady with such confidence in her product, and in what her place was all about it made me a bit on the jelaous side. How many times we wish we had that sort of confidence?

My friend and I walked upstairs where the seating was, this crowded seating area with little light and lots of art in the walls, we sat in a tiny table, soon after our order arrived and with it our conversation in spanish too, shortly after we had to leave to continue our shift. This is hte place where I tried ecclairs for the first time, believe me they do not get better that this! After that day I returned to this pastry shop and recommended it to everyone, I went many times when I lived in London, on my last visit, many moons ago, I stoped there couple of times. Today as I remember this place, I log in to their website to see that like many restaurants and coffee shops around the world are suffering from COVID economical crash. The good news is that the community is responding to keep them going! I saw their efforts to continue to stay open and pay their staff. I was relieved. I will leave a link to the place in case you want to look more in to it.

This place reminds me of me, that girl that tried french pastries for the first time and fall in love with them, and also fall inlove with the uniqueness of being unique! special, different, and stay strong to your belives. You are what you are, as wild as you can be. When I had my restaurant some people though that I was french, I was a bit like this old lady, a bit ( or much) on the moody side, to be honest then I understood her, I had so many fired to turned off that it was hard to keep my smile all day. I did sometimes, and many times my customers helped me too!

Thank you for reading me,

In good Food,

Iliana

xoxo

Links:

http://www.maisonbertaux.com/