Learn to Make French Desserts in Paris at Le Foodist

Local cuisine is a great way to immerse yourself in the culture of the place you’re visiting. For my family, learning to make French desserts in Paris was a fun and engaging way to learn from a local and enjoy delicious treats. We took a three hour French desserts class at Le Foodist during our week-long trip to France. We learned to make four different French treats and we shared a lot of laughs with the instructor, Florence, and other classmates.

If you plan to spend any time in Paris, I would highly recommend signing up to take a class with Le Foodist. Two years ago, my wife and I learned to make macarons from Le Foodist. We had so much fun, we signed up again when we took two of our kids to explore Paris.

Here’s a rundown on what you can expect in the class and what you need to do to book this amazing experience in Paris.

Register Online for the Class in Advance of Your Visit

As we planned our trip to France, we built our itinerary around the class we wanted to take at Le Foodist. The best way to do this is to review their online calendar of classes and find the one you want to attend. We picked the French Desserts class because my wife and I had already taken the French macaron baking class two years ago.

The French desserts class includes the following:

• Crème brûlée
• Financiers (gold bar-type cookies)
• Chocolate soufflé
• Crêpes suzette

When you identify the class you want to take, you can book the class online. The earlier in advance you book, the better changes you’ll have of there being a slot available. This is especially true as travel starts to open up more and more people head to Europe. They do have a cancellation policy, so be sure to check that out so you can plan accordingly should your plans change.

Young kids (8 or younger) aren’t permitted at the main classes, but can be included if you book a private class.

Getting to Le Foodist in Paris

Le Foodist is easy to get to. If you’re walking, it’s about 7 minutes from Notre Dame, 3 minutes from Le Panthéon or 30 seconds from the Cardinal Lemoine metro stop. We used our phone (which had an international plan) so we could more easily find the spot. It was a 15 minute from our walk in the Latin Quarter, which allowed us to walk past The Pantheon en route.

We recommend arriving a few minutes ahead of your start time. You don’t want to be the person who arrives late and had to play catchup to the eye-rolling of those who arrived on time.

Once you arrive, you’ll meet the chef who will be teaching you. He or she will give you a spot to put your bags and coats. Then wash your hands, put on an apron and you’ll be ready to begin.

Making the French Desserts

As mentioned above, there are four French desserts you’ll be making during the class. Our instructor, Florence, was amazing. She taught the class in English, which made it easier for my wife and kids to understand (NOTE: Most of the classes at Le Foodist are taught in English). We had four other people join us in our class so we had a total of eight pupils. One was from Ireland. Another from Greece. And two from Indiana. So people come from all over for these amazing classes.

Crème brûlée

We started with the crème brûlée, because it needed to sit in the fridge for a bit before doing the burnt sugar topping. Florence taught us a few tricks about how to get the bubbles out of the Crème after putting it in the ramequins. It’s those little things that make the class so much better than just looking at a recipe and giving it a go. Plus, we shared lots of laughs along the way.

Once they chilled for a bit, we added the sugar on top and pulled out the torch for the “brûlée” part. It was fun, but only one of us burnt our sugar to just the right spot. The rest of us were either too much or too little. Oh well. Guess I’ll have to make some more and just keep trying till I get it right.

Financiers

Next were the financiers. Florence shared some background on the small little treat and the reason they are called “financiers”, but I’m not going to ruin that point of conversation for you. You’ll just have to take the class… or Google it. The reason we had to do those next is because they also need to sit in the fridge for an hour before you cook them.

After the hour, Fred (one of the other instructors at Le Foodist) brought back from raspberries from the market, so we added those to the tops of the financiers before putting them into the oven.

Crêpes Suzette

After getting those first two recipes in the fridge, we moved on to the third: Crêpes Suzette. I’ve been cooking crêpes at home for more than 20 years. The recipe I had was a basic one, which looked more like a standard pancake recipe when compared to the one used at Le Foodist. We learned the tricks of the trade and I even successfully flipped a crêpe, as noted one of the photos below. We’ve now upped our game when it comes to cooking crêpes at home. Yummy!

As part of the crêpes, we also learned how to make the orange sauce used to coat the crêpe and a special way to slice oranges so you don’t have to worry about the peel as you garnish the crepe. So many little tips and tricks are taught here.

Chocolate Soufflé

I definitely want to make the chocolate soufflé at home. It was so delicious. The recipe isn’t too challenging, but it’s good to have a backup whisker because after trying to whisk the eggs until they formed solid peaks was tiring. We made our with a little more dark chocolate than milk chocolate. But you can go with whatever chocolate taste you’d like when you make yours. We also learned some of the tricks to ensuring your soufflé rises up out of the ramequins. Once we had everything prepped in the ramequins, into the oven they went.

Enjoy the Desserts Around the Dinner Table

Once everything is done and in the oven, the tasty part begins. We brought our individual plate of crepe suzette up to the long table on the main floor. The plate of financiers and a platter with the crème brûlées made their way up to the table as well. Florence hung out by the oven to bring up the chocolate soufflés as soon as they were done cooking.

The time around the table is one of the best parts about baking and cooking in Paris. You can sit around the table and chat about what you learned, along with learning about some of the other people who were in the class. We talked about families, the must-see things in Paris, our experience exploring southern France during this trip and more.

There’s no rush to shove the food down your mouth and head out to your next adventure. I’ve found that the French value their time at the table enjoying good food, and that’s what we wanted to do as well. After enjoying every last morsel of the French desserts, we grabbed a photo with out amazing instructor, said our farewells and headed off to explore the Musee de Louvre.

A few days after our trip, we received all the recipes so we could cook them at home. I’ve already whipped up a few batches of financiers and they are SO GOOD. We’ll definitely be coming back to Le Foodist the next time we’re in Paris so we can keep learning from some amazing instructors.

Before heading back home, you can also visit a few kitchen shops to grab powdered food coloring, financier molds and more. Check out La Bovida and MORA near Les Halles in Paris.

The Details

Address: 59 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 75005 Paris, France. If walking, it’s about 7 minutes from Notre Dame, 3 minutes from Le Panthéon, and 30 seconds from the Cardinal Lemoine metro stop.

Cost: Le Foodist offers several baking and cooking class options starting at about $100 per person. This includes macarons, eclairs/creme puffs, French desserts, breads, meals and more.

Hours: Classes are scheduled at various times throughout the day. Check their website and find the baking and cooking classes in Paris that interest you and work with your itinerary.

Phone: +33 6 71 70 95 22

Website: https://www.lefoodist.com/

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