Recently on a trip to Sluis in the Netherlands, I ate at Sergio Herman's flagship Oud Sluis…read morerestaurant. Upon getting the bread and butter, something seemed familiar. It was similar to the butter at Pierre Gagnaire and L'Arpege in Paris. Turns out it is the same great butter from the master Jean Yves Bordier. His old technique of churning butter in old wooden barrels creating some of the yellowest, almost cheese like butters, Ive ever seen. I guess it's no surprise that Chefs like Sergio Herman, Alain Passard and Pierre Gagnaire get there product from here. It is pretty phenomenal. I wish I lived nearby and try some of his great sounding compound butters. I guess the next time Im in France a trip here might have to be on the books.

Delicious macarons. I'm told that there are three major macaron boutiques in Rennes, and this is…read moreone of them. These are inexpensive compared to macarons from Maison Ladurée in the UES in NYC, but then again, everything is inexpensive compared to that. These were more reasonable even than the Maison Ladurée in Paris, at 4.95 euros for 100g of macarons. This comes out to around 8 macarons, at around 61 cents to a macaron. Less than a euro for a macaron! I could die. I was a bit stunned at how many macarons I could try. I forgot which ones I picked, except for my standbys, the vanilla macaron and the pistachio. I am not yet good at judging macarons, but the pistachio macaron was much more flavorful than the ones I had at Maison Ladurée a few days prior. They also have huge meringues for just over a euro a piece. They had wonderful chocolate sculptures (including one that resembled a painter's palette with a different colored macaron in each paint slot), and many different kinds of chocolate. I am told that the pastries here aren't as good, so I will stick to trying the chocolates and macarons. I'm sure I could spend a decent amount of money in this shop.

I frequent this place very often for their free samples, and I finally felt bad about taking so…read moremany free samples that I decided to buy something else. I stopped by 30 minutes before they closed at 7pm on a Wednesday evening, and got their last Mont Blanc (€4,50) to go. WOW. I am so so so happy that I decided on this one instead of another cake that I was looking at. Mont Blanc's are my favorite cake, and this one now ranks 2nd in my list of favorite Mont Blanc's. Let me tell you why: 1. The size is absolutely adorable. I've had other one's (Angelina in Paris, Mr. & Mrs. Renou in Geneva) where there was just TOO much cream (yes, there's such thing as too much cream) that it became overpowering and way too sweet to eat. 2. THEY. USE. AN ALMOND PIE TART. AS. A. BASE. Can we talk about how creative and different that is!? I've had ones that are a sponge cake, macaron, meringue, and sable, but never a whole tart underneath! And this tart was absolutely amazing too - the pie crust wasn't sweet at all which helped balance the sweetness of the chestnut cream & almond paste filling. 3. No meringue, just whipped cream. Chestnuts instead of a chestnut cream inside. 4. Perfect amount of stiff, creamy, sweet chestnut cream on the outside. Everything about this dessert was amazing. It's been a whole 24 hours since I ate it, and it's still all I can think about.

From the owner: Pâtissier, chocolatier, traiteur sur rennes…read more Meilleur Ouvrier de France 1997 Daniel, meilleur ouvrier de France 1997 en pâtisserie possède aujourd'hui 3 adresses éponymes à Rennes. Sa particularité : le travail du beurre salé breton. Le "Coeur de Bretagne" (crémeux caramel salé, crème brûlée au chocolat, mousse au chocolat au lait, biscuit noisette, sans gluten) est un joli hommage à la Bretagne.