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"Coming Soon" no more. Simone Faure's La Patisserie Chouquette opens tomorrow.
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Faure names cakes after women she admires. She calls this cake "Coco," after its signature Chanel stitching (although one customer dubbed it the "Ricardo Montalban" for its resemblance to "fine Corinthian leather").
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Charlize Theron once wore a dress to an awards dinner with a large, out-of-place, black bow, Simone's inspiration for the "Charlize" cake.
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The "Marie," as in Antoinette: regal, elegant, and with a patina that's "both fresh-faced and blue," perhaps an allegory for the queen herself.
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Patrick Devine and Christa Schmuck showing off the "Eliza," inspired by My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle.
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This handbag cake looks even more real in person, the strap resembling sterling silver.
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An appropriate adornment: chocolates from Chesterfield-based Rick Jordan Chocolatier, recently named one of the "Top 10 Chocolatiers in North America 2012."
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"Bags and shoes," Chouquette-style.
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Center: An edible replica of a turquoise necklace (one Simone coveted, but could not acquire). Upper right; a handbag with her just-invented signature--a loose interpretation of the Eiffel Tower-- in deep turquoise, one of the "it" shades of 2013.
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Left: With a woven seat "that's as comfortable as an old sweater," this chair was refurbished by local artist Jenny B of GIPSI. Right, on rack: The pink and black "Victoria" cake, the Victoria's Secret-inspired "peek into a woman's boudoir."
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Chad Mathis filling chouquettes, bits of choux pastry dough baked with pearl sugar on top. The result is a crazed, crunchy surface.
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Chouquette is airy, spacious, and elegant.
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Loose teas on a tea cart. New Orleans-style chicory coffee, blended by local roaster Chauvin Coffee Company, will also be served.
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A vanity, with a "bride's cake" under the cloche. Bride's cakes are traditionally used as centerpieces at weddings or bridal showers.
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The image of Simone, caught in a mirror. Mirrors are thought to hold energy, hence their preponderance in Chouquette.
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The surface of the dress, made entirely of fondant.
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Tomorrow, this case will be filled with pastries, cookies, scones, petit "Faures," and canele. Chouquette opens on February 26.
By George Mahe
Simone Faure was a wizened pastry chef before she ever was hired as Exec Chef the Ritz Carlton-St. Louis, but it wasn't until she began creating cakes fashioned after women's handbags and pumps that locals began to take notice (read her SLM Q&A here). Faure's long-awaited pastry shop, La Patisserie Chouquette, is an extension of everything Simone: artistry, whimsy, design sense, fashion, and culinary skill, as the following images will attest. Chouquette, located at 1626 Tower Grove in Botanical Heights, opens Tuesday, February 26.
Watch Simone show how to make canele here.
