Have you ever tasted croissants with artichockes, red pepper and feta? I did. During a press trip to Jerusalem, we visited the small pastry shop of David Laor, an Israeli baker who travelled to Paris many years ago to learn everything about the art of French pastry and bakery. Today, he delights food lovers of his homecity with baguettes, cookies, mille-feuille, saint-honoré, guggelhopf and baba (a small yeast cake saturated in syrup). He also offers Jewish pastry like babka with chocolate, which originally comes from Eastern Europe.
“French patisserie has become very popular in Israel, especially in Tel Aviv,” says David Laor during our visit. “But seven years ago, when I came back from Paris, where I had attended the Cordon Bleu school, it was not the case. I wanted to adapt classic French patisserie to Jerusalem’s food tradition, by putting e. g. the tahini on a croissant.”
(Above) Mille-feuille, saint-honoré and guggelhopf. If you live in Jerusalem and miss the pastry you ate in France, go to the David Laor bakery. I can really recommend it.
TASTING DAVID LAOR’S FRENCH PASTRY IN JERUSALEM
For Europeans who often travel to Paris, David Laor’s shop is a bakery that combines French pastry and bakery with Israeli gastronomy. The croissants and pastries are very good, but they don’t have the quality and the delicacy of pastries created by the top French pastry chefs like Yann Couvreur, Christophe Michalak or Yann Menguy. But let’s admit it, this is a very special league of pastry chefs who were born and raised in France.
(Above) Croissants with artichockes, red pepper and feta. For my taste, they had too much butter and oil.
(Above) The warm almond pastries were delicious.
(Above) Baguettes, cakes and cookies. The bakery was opened almost seven years ago.
(Above) Buyers can help themselves with croissants. In Israel, it’s very common that people can take the food themselves. In Europe, however, you’re not allowed to touch the food for hygienic reasons.
Copyright photos: VERTIGO Magazine
David Laor on Instagram
