Ritz Paris

The Ritz Paris treats pastry as a matter of state: François Perret’s madeleines and marble cake in the Salon Proust, and the same pieces sold to the street at Le Comptoir on the rue Cambon.

César Ritz opened the hotel on the place Vendôme in 1898 with Auguste Escoffier in the kitchen, and the house has never stopped believing that the sweet course is where a palace shows its manners. Since the 2016 reopening the pastry kitchen has been led by François Perret, whose madeleine, marble cake and honey desserts turned a hotel patisserie into a public brand. Tea is served in the Salon Proust, a wood-panelled library room with a fire, where the madeleines arrive warm in a silver dish, and the Bar Vendôme keeps the trolley rolling into the evening.

The house opened Le Comptoir in 2021 around the corner on the rue Cambon: a bright counter where the hotel’s cakes are boxed for the street. It is the cheapest way into the Ritz kitchen and often the best, because the cakes there are baked for the day and not for the room. Ask for the marble cake, the Ritz madeleine and, in season, the strawberry tart.