Like many enthusiasts, Carl Marletti fell into pastry-making as a child: his grandfather was a pastry baker. After working at the InterContinental Paris le Grand hotel and its Café de la Paix, where he practiced the art of the millefeuille, Carl Marletti opened his boutique, a veritable “cake jewelry store”, in the lower Rue Mouffetard. It’s his only boutique, but he also works for restaurants and hotels such as Verlet, Elysée Saint-Honoré and Elysia by Inwood. His entire laboratory is located in the 5th arrondissement, giving him complete control over everything. His cake collections change regularly: this autumn, you’ll find mirabelle plum and Soliès fig tarts.
Carl Marletti, like any self-respecting protector of agriculture, works exclusively with seasonal fruit, and his marvellous fraisieris available from April to September. Then come exotic fruits and citrus. His strawberries come from a small producer in Fontainebleau, and for other fruits, he buys from Metro Bercy, but he also has buddies in the local greengrocer’s, because he likes local commerce. His butter comes from l’Or des prés, the famous shop run by Mr. Tassery, who is passionate about dairy products. His milk and cream come from the Alsace laits cooperative, his butter from the Charentes region, his chocolate from Valrhona, his candied fruit from Agrimontana in Piedmont and Corsiglia in Marseille, and his hazelnut and pistachio paste are specially prepared for him by Monsieur Boudinat in Morocco.
All these products are of the highest quality, supplied by craftsmen, because there’s no secret, as Carl Marletti repeats, to have a good finished product, you need exemplary raw materials. The rest is work, and the reality of being a pastry chef is far removed from Instagram and TV shows: you have to work hard, you don’t just improvise pastry chef!
Carl Marletti, who confides that he loves to have a book in his hands, admires Maxime Frédéric at Cheval Blanc, Jeffrey Cagnes, Christophe Michalak and Pierre Hermé. But his latest favorite is Les trois chocolats, because he loves Japan…
