YULELOGS

LES BUCHES DE NOEL

I grew up in a French family. A very French family. We happily took part in all the holidays, the birthdays were sacred, celebrating this and that was a big deal. ALL of it was done around food and of course, crowning such meals, was some kind of patisserie. 

Like in a great number of homes, Christmas was of course the culminating celebration and to honor that fine day there was a Buche de Noël, a traditional Yulelog. They were always home made bien sur, as both my mother and grandmother were the buche fairies I will never be. THAT is becoming more and more evident each year.

The idea then was to make a buche as realistic as possible and with as many decorations as possible. We liked when ours had all the bells and whistles. Well, not literally, more like tiny pine trees and mushrooms and Santas and all that.

Since then "Beaucoup d'eau a coulé sous les ponts" -A lot of water has flowed under the bridges (of Paris, of course), as we say in French- and the talented patissiers of France have given their all to create veritable works of art all the while straying as far away from the classic buche as they possibly could without loosing sight of the basic log shape...well almost. Yes, that is exactly what they are: works of art. Take a look. 

The tutti fruity

The burst of color

The chocolate wonders

The edible whimsy

The couture hunting scene

and let's not forget the Asian twist

buches by guy krenzer, pierre herme, christophe michalac, solofruit, lenotre, kenzo pour lenotre
Bravo! 

One can only wonder at how much skill, patience, artistry, originality, and so much more has to be rolled into one Maitre Patissier to deliver such feasts for the eyes and the palate.

Now, if only one day I could only manage to roll the flat basic cake into the right log-like shape without ending up with a big mishmash, I might have a shot at unleashing my own boiling virtuosity.... sigh...

au revoir.