Eclairs: Hong Kong’s hottest French pastry treat

Move over macarons, the eclair is the hottest French pastryin Hong Kongright now. The finger-shaped cream puff, the name of which means “lightning” in French, is not exactly new to the city: global brands including Fauchon, La Maison du Chocolat and Maison Eric Kayser sell eclairs,while local soft-serve ice cream hotspot Via Tokyo, in Causeway Bay, has also been making a matcha version for its sweet-toothed customers.

But the launch of L’Éclair de Génie pop-ups on November 25 in Pacific Place and the Prince’s Building this week has upped the ante. Co-founder and pastry chef Christophe Adam changed thetraditional pastry into a range of colourful, multiflavoured and highly decorated treatsthat are a fashionable in Paris. He’s been expanding his empire not only in his home country, but also in Asia with shops in Japan and Korea, and now the pop-ups – scheduled to last for about six months – in Hong Kong.

“I started to create my first eclair – orange flavoured – with Fauchon in 2002,” says Adam, whoalso worked at Le Gavroche in London and Hotel de Crillon in Paris. “Little by little I’ve created maybe 300 different eclairs and, in 2008, I organised for Fauchon the first ever Eclair Week [which has now become an annual event]. When I left Fauchon four years ago, I was encouraged by [co-founder and entrepreneur] Charles Lahmi to create a brand with just eclairs.”

It will take some time to sample all of Adam’s jewel-like creations: 10 flavours are available each day and the selection changes each month when two or three new varieties will be added. Adam’s favourite is the salted butter caramel version as it reminds him of his childhood in Brittany – a region in France famous for its salted butter – but everyone will be able to find a flavour that appeals to them, whether it’s pistachio-orange, chestnut-blueberry (made exclusively for the Hong Kong debut), or milk chocolate praline.

Other than Adam’s creativity, which he says is fuelled by his lifestyle and travels, the key to the brand’s popularity is the freshness of the products. Since he founded the brand in 2012, Adam has made a point of investing in “artisanal factories”, like the one he built in Wong Chuk Hang, to ensure that everything is fresh. “It’s very important for me to create fresh eclairs every day, be it in France, Japan, Korea or Hong Kong,” he says.

Also making fashionable eclairs ispastry chef Roy Lau Kwong-hung.When Lau was asked to devise the dessert menu for The Park Lane Hong Kong Pullman Hotel’s new lobby lounge, Ebb & Flow, the eclair seemed the obvious choice to fit in with the space’s chic interior design.