Belle Epoque Patisserie

Belle Epoque is a recent, but timely newcomer to Newington Green. The recently refurbished Green sparkles and
suddenly attracts local families, pensioners and the odd essential nutter, but the best thing about the green, in my opinion, is Belle Epoque.
This French Patisserie is everything and more that you would want from a local cafe with relaxed family-friendly service, a superb range of quality eats, good prices and ample seating. Proprietor Eric imports most of his ingredients from France to achieve authentic results. We are talking about twelve different types of flour here! No corners cut!
He serves up the best pastries you will find in London - or Paris for that matter - as well as a range of authentic French loaves and artisan cakes to die for - a compulsory stop off on birthdays. Like so many London cafes Belle Epoque gets busy on weekends with queues for both take aways and tables, though in the summer the recently opened outdoor courtyard virtually doubles the seating.
Unusually the menu offers two types of coffee for their espresso based drinks - I recommend the Florio - a few pence more but pure Arabica and good stuff. Belle Epoque is a bit of a hidden North London gem, largely because of its Stokey location - i.e. no convenient tube - but get yourself on the 73 bus, make an excursion of it and enjoy! society.guardian.co.uk

Eric and Hulya Rousseau opened Belle Époque on Newington Green in April 2002 to bring French gastronomique culture to Stokey. It is in a perfect location and the building reflects the spirit of 1920s Parisian Art Noveau patisseries.

Eric comes from Pontoise, an old medieval town on the outskirts of Paris. Initially they were looking for a site south of the river in places like Blackheath, but decided in the end to come to Stokey. As Eric put it: ‘I sell an exclusive French product, but not at an exclusive price – so, why not Stokey?’ Eric also likes Stokey’s community spirit and is actively involved in local community activities. When asked ‘why come to the UK at all?’, he shrugs his shoulders and states that ‘there is a huge market and no competition here’.

Eric’s CV is, to say the least, impressive. He was professionally trained in France and has worked as a pastry chef on cruise liners and in Namibia. More recently, he was the Pastry Chef for Les Saveurs de Jean Christophe Novelly and for Searcy’s Restaurant at the Barbican Centre and Head Pastry Chef for the Caviar House in Piccadilly. He is also a Guinness world record holder.

Belle Epoque has its own kitchens (‘laboratories’ to Eric) split into a bakery and a pastry kitchen. They supply breads to several well-known establishments including the Caviar House and L’Orangerie. Locally, they supply Clicia and the Don Mario Deli in Highbury. Belle Epoque’s essential components are deli, coffee shop, chocolatier, patisserie and bakery. They import two and a half tons a fortnight of France’s top flour Grande Moule de Paris. Six to eight different breads including five cereals, rye, baguette and pain de campagne are produced daily and the breads change four times a year according to the season. They also make brioches, pain au chocolate and they sell 1,100 croissants over Saturday and Sunday alone.

The patisserie, using award winning Beurre d’ Isigny, produces tarts, cakes, gateaux and individual cakes. You could kill for a slice of the ‘Belle Epoque’ cake. It is made from state-of-the-art chocolate with an orange crème brulee centre, Grand Marnier and Florentines. Belle Epoque is also a chocolatier. They make JanDuJar, confisery, bonbons, Easter eggs and a lot more.

Belle Epoque stocks the full range of dark Cuban chocolate – Touzanie, Dominque and Paponase. Eric is famous for his chocolate sculptures, some of which are over three feet high. This Xmas, the shop will have its seasonal chocolate sculpture. Any customer buying 100 grammes or more of chocolate can enter a competition where whoever is the closest in guessing the weight of the chocolate sculpture wins it. As if this is not enough, Eric specialises in making highly decorative sugar blown objet d’arts cake decorations: ‘Turn the oven to 200C and work with it’ – got it.

The coffee shop imports its coffee from Café Picard in Paris and uses either 100 percent Arabica coffee or Café Rouge for milky coffees. It also serves continental breakfast, fresh quiches du jour, salad, croque monsieur, hot tartines and sandwiches.

Last, but by no means least, Belle Epoque is also a deli. It sells homemade jams, fruit preserves, confitures and other goodies like La Belle Chauriene cassoulet and twenty-year-old Balsamico di Modena. Is this foodie heaven? Is the Pope a
Catholic? N16 Online