Pierre Marcolini

I’d never heard of Pierre Marcolini before last week… but all this changed when I was researching the food (and chocolates) of Belgium. I came across and article which said that he was one of best chocolatiers in the world, which obviously meant I immediately put it on my “to eat” list. 😀 According to his website, his main store was in Place du Sablon… so I marked it on my map, as I already knew that I had to try his chocolates.

Imagine my delight when I went to Place du Sablon, and not only saw the Pierre Marcolini store, but also a Godiva store (one of the few stores which sold Chocolixir – their chocolate drink), and a Nehaus store. Pure bliss for a chocolate lover such as myself! Needless to say, I consumed a LOT of chocolate in the 3 days I spent in Brussels and Bruges, and this does not include the chocolates I brought back to London! (Photos to come in a later post)

Pierre Marcolini not only makes chocolates, but also a whole range of other items such as macarons, biscuits and mini-gateauxs (I doubt this is the right term to describe them). Unfortunately, photos are not allowed in his stores, so all I have are photos of the window displays…

Lighter-than-air marshmallows (on the R), and fruit cubes (on the L). I did not try the fruit cubes, but the marshmallows were delightfully light – I tried the pistachio flavoured one and it was nutty with a hint of lemon. Unfortunately they are only sold in boxes of 35, which was dissapointing as I would have bought a smaller box had it been available.

A larger version of one of his mini-gateaux cakes

The mini-gateaux cakes I bought 😀

This was my favourite of the three – a chocolate based gateaux covered in a raspberry infused ganache. I’m afraid I can’t describe this in any more detail, as this was all the information I got from the man at the store… All I can say is that it was delicious, and the colour of this does make it rather attractive!

Java – a coffee based gateaux, with a dark and milk chocolate sabayon beneath all that orangey-ness. 😛 If I remember correctly, there was also a thin layer of biscuit (feuilletine perhaps?) in it which added a good contrast of textures. And again, this was very good.

Envol – dark chocolate sabayon and a layer of orange flavoured creme brulee, topped with a dark chocolate ganache. This was also good, but I found it slightly less interesting compared to the other two. Needless to say, I still enjoyed it!

Yum.

I also tried his macarons as they looked too good to resist. He makes them in 5 flavours – pistachio (green), coffee (brown), vanilla (white), chocolate (red) and caramel (yellow). Having tried Pierre Herme and Laduree macarons in the past, I must say that Pierre Marcolini’s macarons are pretty good, especially the pistachio and chocolate flavoured ones. Texture wise, I found his macarons slightly on the soft side, and I must say I prefer the texture of Pierre Herme’s as there is slightly more ‘crunch’ when you bite into them. Pierre Herme also has a better range of macaron flavours.

Didn’t stop us from getting more macarons the next day though…

It took self control to stop eating the half eaten macaron so I could photograph it!

I also bought a tasting box of Marcolini chocolates, which I shall blog about in a future post as I’ve already gone slightly overboard with the photos. To those who have tasted his creations, I would be interested to know what you think of them. 🙂

Pierre Marcolini
Rue des Minimes, 1
Place du Grand Sablon
1000 Bruxelles
Belgium
http://www.marcolini.be/#/en/home/