Help Please - Moelleux Emergancy!

A few days ago my client informed me that some potential clients for them were coming to town from France for a meeting. The "usual" catering set-up would not suffice, so I have been working with Vanille to provide afternoon pastries, another vendor for coffee, etc... Vanille has been wonderful, with Keli personally dropping off my order this morning and everything is truely lovely. Here's my problem: 20 minutes after she left, my client informs me she just found out one of the visiting VIP's favorites is moelleux cakes. "Could Vanille rush some over?" Well, yes (because they are that accommodating,) if only they hadn't discontinued making them. I know it's a long shot, but has anyone out there in LTH-land ever seen these at another bakery around town? $$ is no object -we'd pay to put them in a cab or messenger service. Link to photo below. Thanks!

http://www.vanillepatisserie.com/store/ ... _Code=3000

This could well be a dead-end. I'm familiar with moelleux as wine, but not cake.
However Bonjour Bakery in Hyde Park is pretty authentically french (the proprietress could be a poster for the archetypal no-nonsense parisian shopkeeper). It might be at least worth a call.

Bonjour Cafe Bakery
(773) 241-5300 See reviews on Yahoo! Local

mrbarolo,

Thanks for the idea! As time was running out, my client came up with another request - San Pellegrino Limonata & Aranciata. As I knew I could satisfy that one with a quick trip to Pastoral, I promptly abandoned my quest for the elusive Moelleux cakes. If they land this client I forsee myself back on the lookout. Or perhaps I can persude Dimitri & Keli at Vanille to do a special order with some advance notice. (If my client gives me any.)

That is a much more doable substitution. For future reference, the San Pellegrino Limonata & Aranciata are also sold by the six-pack at Treasure Island, so you can stock up and be ready the next time this client makes a surprise visit.

Yes, Aranciata is much, much easier to find in Chicagoland than moelleux. I was very sad to hear that Vanille stopped making them. The first thing I ever purchased at Vanille a few years ago was a bag of mixed moelleux and macarons. I'm not a fan of bite-sized cake; Vanille's moelleux were an exception.

I have to say that I wish this situation had come up during the GNR nominating period, because they have been awesome to work with. I would have chimed in with praise based on customer service alone. For various reasons, I opted to have my order shipped to us overnight. I e-mailed Keli yesterday for the tracking numbers so I could have the building's mailroom get them to me as soon as they arrived. She picked up on my stress with the time crunch and offered to hand deliver them to me this morning. Everything was lovely and beautifully packaged with attention to details (ribbons, hand-folded crepe paper between layers...) So French! Once I had the room set-up with the pastries and chocolates on tiered platters and some fresh flowers, it was inspected by the meeting's primary host. Got a big "thumbs-up." He said it felt just like he was in the Firm's Paris office.
Have to admit - I snuck a butter cookie and a chocolate. Both were exemplary.

Sharon - please keep an eye out for me in your pastry travels!

You can also get a mixed case of limonata and Oranciata at Costco for around 15 bucks IIRC

I'm glad things worked out, but doesn't this demand for French pastries strike you as similar behavior for which Americans get criticized when traveling in Paris? Shouldn't they be more interested in exploring the native pastries? I'm just sayin'.

The point is not that everyone should try the other country's food, it's that anything that isn't French food is unworthy of eating...

At lunch, you can take them to Hardee's and tell them it's the closest thing to Mr. Quick.

Um...correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I google, isn't a Molleux just french for the ubiquitous Chocolate Lava Cake? I mean, it looks to be muffin-sized (the one at the Chotchkie's I ate at last with the in-laws was, of course, bigger - because that makes up for the fact that it's made with faux Hersheys Syrup) I'll admit, Molleux sounds less fattening...

I'm guessing you don't need a french bakery to do that as long as you don't tell them.

I believe the decision to go with the French pastries was based on some intel that other Firms they'd visited didn't and we wanted to be different. So, they didn't demand it, we chose to do it. Plus, the host is a personal fan of Vanille. Anyway, after all the hoopla, the food was barely touched. (Made my staff, the conference services staff, and I'm sure some secretaries on the upper floors very happy.) Interestingly enough all of the Pellegrinos were taken, so I guess that was a lucky call on my part.

Our standard cookies and dessert bars/brownies are good and look good. Vanille's were great and presented even better. I would use them again for VIP meetings, French people attending, or not.

Thanks for the pointers for more Pellegrino - I may need it!

Mhays wrote:Um...correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I google, isn't a Molleux just french for the ubiquitous Chocolate Lava Cake?

Based on my eating experience only, I've often seen "moelleux" refer to chocolate lava cake but also to any moist cake--be it a butter cake, almond cake... The word just means "soft" or "moist" (or "mellow," I guess, in the case of wine). At Vanille, they were moist, buttery bites with a little fruit.

Quick addendum: The Costco at Clybourn & Diversey currently has 24-packs of the 11.5oz San Pellegrino cans (12 Limonata, 12 Aranciata) for $13.99.

They also had 24-packs of 16.9oz plain San Pellegrino plastic bottles for $16.99, and 12-packs of plain 25.3oz glass bottles for $12.99.