This lovely little Parisian-style bakery is the realisation of French-born Audrey Kriel’s dream of escaping the drudgery of the office to work with her hands.
After a career in marketing for the Antipodean art-house film
industry, Kriel enrolled at the Ecole de Boulangerie et de
Pâtisserie in Paris and began a new life as a pastry chef. She
gained experience at various bakeries, such as the prestigious
Pâtisserie des Rêves in Paris and Petit Gâteau in
Amsterdam, before opening this, her first shop, in De Pijp. Kriel
specialises in cream-filled pastries (think: millefeuilles, eclairs
and choux). The light-as-air chocolate eclair, with its hefty hit of
Valrhona chocolate tempered by rich cream, and the crispy choux
crammed with lemon cream, a citrusy sugar bomb, come highly
recommended. There’s also a little window seat where you can
kick off the day with viennoiserie, such as pain aux raisins or pain
au chocolat, and coffee made with a blend of Ethiopian and Brazilian
beans from renowned Amsterdam roasters Lot Sixty One.
