Madame CHOUX

‘Pâte a choux’ has been around for quite a while! According to Claude Juillet in Classic Patisserie: An A-Z Handbook, In 1533, when Catherine de Medici left Florence to marry the Duke of Orleans who was later to become Henry II, King of France from 1547, she brought with her to France her entire court, which included her chefs. Seven years later in 1540, her head chef, Panterelli, invented a hot, dried paste with which he made gateaux. He christened the paste ‘pâte a Panterelli’. The original recipe changed as the years passed, and so did the paste’s name. It became known as ‘pâte a Popelini’, which then became ‘pâte a Popelin’. A patissier called Avice perfected the paste in the middle of the eighteenth century and created choux buns.

The ‘pâte a Popelin’ became known as ‘pâte à choux’, since only choux buns were made from it. [And choux buns were the same shape as small cabbages]. Choux is the French word for cabbages…. Antoine Carême in the nineteenth century perfected the recipe, and this is the same recipe for choux pastry as is used today. Classic French cuisine from the mid-1950s is resplendent with dishes made from ‘pâte a choux’.

Today, other than ‘éclairs’ at one’s local patisserie, gougères served as an ‘amuse-bouche’ in Burgundy, and ‘croquembouches’, stacks of profiteroles glued together with caramel, served for celebrations, many of the classic dishes based on ‘pâté a choux’ are seldom found.

Whether used in sweet or savoury dishes, the ‘pâte a choux’ is always prepared the same way.

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