The Art of Fine Patisserie
The art of fine patisserie
Palace patisseries, pastry chefs, signature desserts, afternoon tea and chocolate in twelve cities, from the Ritz Paris to the Peninsula Hong Kong. With planners that decide where you eat dessert tonight.
The signature tool
Find your patisserie
Choose a city, what you crave and the setting you want. The finder matches hotels, boutiques, tea rooms and chocolatiers and tells you why.
Twelve sweet capitals
Twelve cities, twelve ways to be sweet
Every city has its own idea of sweetness. Paris sculpts fruit, Vienna slices torte, London pours tea at four, Tokyo cuts a cake with the precision of a jeweller. Twelve portraits with the addresses that matter.
92France
Paris
Palaces, sculpted fruit, the Ispahan
82United Kingdom
London
Palm Court, scones, the Foyer
72Monaco
Monaco
Belle Époque salons, fougasse, the Chocolaterie
73United Arab Emirates
Dubai
Sahn Eddar, camel milk chocolate, palace tea rooms
66Spain
Mallorca
Palma courtyards, almond cake, hot chocolate
79Switzerland
Zurich
Luxemburgerli, champagne truffles, lakeside salons
81United States
New York
Plaza tea, SoHo bakeries, crystal salons
86Japan
Tokyo
Ambroisie, matcha, the depachika
78Austria
Vienna
Sachertorte, Imperial Torte, Demel
72Germany
Munich
Grand cafés, pralines, the Bayerischer Hof
80Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Peninsula tea, rose petal jam, egg tarts
77Singapore
Singapore
Raffles tea, kaya, Cédric Grolet under the equator
Palaces and grand hotels
The palaces, from croissant to trolley
A great hotel is judged at four in the afternoon. The salon, the tiers, the scone, the tart that looks like a jewel: these houses treat pastry as a first language, not a dessert course.
HotelParis · Place Vendôme
Ritz Paris
The madeleine hotel
HotelParis · Rue de Rivoli
Le Meurice
Where the fruit is sculpted
HotelIconLondon · Mayfair
Claridge’s
The Foyer at four
HotelIconHong Kong · Tsim Sha Tsui, Salisbury Road
The Peninsula Hong Kong
The Lobby since 1928
HotelIconVienna · Philharmonikerstrasse, behind the Opera
Hotel Sacher Wien
The Original Sacher-Torte
HotelIconNew York · Fifth Avenue, Central Park South
The Plaza
The Palm Court
The people behind the glass
The names on the box
The pastry chef used to be the quiet one at the back of the kitchen. Today the name on the box sells out a boutique in an hour. Twenty portraits, from palace kitchens to counters of their own.
Le Meurice, Paris
Cédric Grolet
The sculptor of fruit
Ritz Paris
François Perret
The madeleine man
Pierre Hermé Paris
Pierre Hermé
The Picasso of pastry
Hôtel Plaza Athénée
Angelo Musa
World champion, MOF
Cheval Blanc Paris
Maxime Frédéric
From the Normandy farm
Four Seasons Hotel George V
Michael Bartocetti
Vanilla and restraint
The Peninsula Paris
Anne Coruble
The tiered stand as canvas
Délicatisserie, Paris
Nina Métayer
The world’s best, twice
Yann Couvreur Pâtisserie
Yann Couvreur
Mille-feuille to order
Michalak Paris
Christophe Michalak
The showman of pastry
One dessert, one house
The desserts a house is known for
Some desserts are so tied to a house that ordering them anywhere else feels like a forgery. Here they are, with the story, the taste profile and a version you can attempt on a Sunday.
Le Meurice, Cédric Grolet
The sculpted fruit
Paris · Since 2015
Ritz Paris, François Perret
The Ritz madeleine
Paris · Since 2016
Ritz Paris, François Perret
The marble cake
Paris · Since 2016
Pierre Hermé
Ispahan
Paris · Since 1997
Plaza Athénée, Angelo Musa
The mille-feuille, Musa style
Paris · Since 2016
Four Seasons George V, Michael Bartocetti
The vanilla dessert
Paris · Since 2019
Cheval Blanc Paris, Maxime Frédéric
The honey dessert
Paris · Since 2021
Yann Couvreur
The mille-feuille à la minute
Paris · Since 2016
Philippe Conticini
The Paris-Brest
Paris · 1910, reinvented 2009
Stohrer, since 1730
The baba au rhum
Paris · Since 1730
Angelina, since 1903
The Mont-Blanc
Paris · Since 1903
L’Éclair de Génie, Christophe Adam
The éclair
Paris · 1850s, reinvented 2012
Four o’clock, worldwide
Four o’clock in the great salons
Three tiers, a pot that is never allowed to run cold and a room built to be looked at. Afternoon tea is the one meal where the pastry chef leads the kitchen, and these salons know it.
Cacao, ganache, praline
Chocolate worth a detour
Chocolate is patisserie’s darker sibling: fewer ingredients, less forgiveness. Twenty-one houses, from a Parisian sculptor of cacao to bean-to-bar makers in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Independent and exceptional
Counters that are worth the queue
The counter is the stage. Here the cake is bought by the piece, the box is tied with ribbon and the queue outside is part of the ritual.
Interactive
Planners for a sweet life
Guides tell you where to go. These tools decide, compare, calculate and plan, and every result can be shared as a card.
Where to go, in one minute
Sweet Finder
Choose a city, what you crave and the setting you want.
OpenTwo salons, one winner
Afternoon Tea Duel
Pick two afternoon teas from the thirty-seven in the guide and compare them on price, champagne, setting, pastry, savoury, service and value.
OpenThe bill before you book
Afternoon Tea Budget
Choose a salon, the number of guests and the champagne, and see the bill with the service charges, taxes and gratuities each city adds, plus the same tea across the cities..
OpenA day of patisserie by the hour
Sweet Route
Choose a city, one to three days and a pace.
OpenLet the wheel decide
Dessert Roulette
Thirty-two signature desserts on a wheel.
OpenWhat to drink with the bar
Chocolate Pairing Finder
Set the cacao percentage, the character of the chocolate and the moment of the day, and the finder ranks twenty-two drinks, from a light-roast Ethiopian coffee to a tawny port..
OpenHow many layers is a croissant?
Croissant Lamination Lab
Choose the fold, the number of folds and the butter, and the lab counts the layers of a croissant, draws them and tells you when the honeycomb collapses..
OpenFifty sweet things before you die
The Paseria 50
Fifty pieces, salons and counters to taste in a lifetime, from the Ambroisie in Kyobashi to a scone at the Ritz.
OpenThe Paseria Selection 2026
The Paseria Selection 2026
Where we would send a friend with one afternoon and a good appetite.
Hotel of the year
Le Meurice
A kitchen that changed how the world sees pastry, a counter on the street and a tea built around a lemon that is not a lemon.
OpenHotel patisserie of the year
Le Comptoir, Ritz Paris
The best pastry per euro in a palace: François Perret’s pieces boxed for the rue Cambon at a third of the salon price.
OpenPastry chef of the year
Nina Métayer
Two world titles, a house of her own and a delicacy of fruit and flowers that no palace has matched this year.
OpenSignature dessert of the year
Ambroisie
The 1991 world champion cake, eat-in only, as perfect as the day it won.
OpenSeasons, openings, chefs
From the pastry calendar
Seasonal16 November 2026
The Christmas logs of 2026: what the palaces are building
Selection10 September 2026
The Paseria Selection 2026: where we would send a friend
Seasonal27 July 2026
Mooncake season: the Peninsula pre-order and the new houses
The paseria poll