Choco-Bar

Tel:

ctress Alicia Silverstone once said, "My favourite thing in the world is a box of fine European chocolates which is, for sure, better than sex." Call her well-cast in the movie Clueless. But there’s no disputing that Europe’s famed pastry chefs, like the "Picasso of pastry", Pierre Herme, have turned dessert-making into a delectable art form. One that Chennaiites are getting a taste of, thanks to Mickael Besse, the French pastry chef behind Ecstasy, the space-age version of a chic Parisian tea room. Says Besse, "Our blueberries are from Belgium, mascarpone from Italy, vanilla pods from India, and chocolate from (top French manufacturers) Valrhona.

We use the best we can find on the market." So what if the velvety slab of chocolate mousse—‘Flak’ (Rs 170), or the toothsome, crumbly Blueberry Cheesecake (Rs 140) have Yeti-sized carbon footprints? Ecstasy’s contemporary spin on classic desserts and confectionery—like the Earl Grey tea-flavoured butter cream in the Parisian Opera cake, the crumble-sprinkled choco-chilli icecream topping the dark chocolate mousse, and the hint of piquant chilli in the fruit-paste cubes—makes each of their products deliciously innovative and, as Alicia would put it, orgasmic.