Our macarons are now available for retail sales at the Viktor Benes Bakery at Gelsons stores in Westlake Village and Marina del Rey.

Chef Xuan and I went to the Westlake Village Gelsons store on a Saturday towards the end of April and did a sampling/demo of our macarons.  Boy, was it  success!  Was it because it was FREE bite-sized macarons or was it because they were yummy?  I would say both!  Of course, free makes everything tastes better, but we did generate quite a bit of sales for the Viktor Benes bakery that Saturday afternoon.  The sampling was from 11 AM - 1 PM, and approximately 400 macarons were gone.  Some customers were diet-conscious and only chose their best flavor, while others took one of each flavor.  There was even one customer that took one of each and placed them in a cup, ordered a cup of joe and sat down and enjoy her macarons and coffee.  Yeah … that’s what I am talking about … I would do the same.

Below is our sampling counter right directly in front of the Gelsons entrance.

Sampling Counter at Gelsons

Another view of the counter:

A close up of the sign and our retail macaron box:

Customers can purchase our 12 piece retail gift box as shown above or by individual macarons as shown below from the pastry display case.  Oops … one of the tags in the display case has 2 “o” in macarons, instead of 1!  Will ask VB to correct it. 

After the sampling/demo event ended, Chef Xuan and VB owner Mona Provencher was all smiles for this Kodak moment.  Mona is the owner of both the Viktor Benes bakery in the Gelsons stores in Westlake Village and Marina del Rey.  Thanks Mona for bringing in XT Patisserie’s macarons into Gelsons !!!  Is that a Lenôtre logo that I see on Chef Xuan’s chef coat?  Yes, it sure is.  Chef Xuan was trained at Lenôtre and then also later worked there.

Chef Xuan followed up with another macaron sampling at the Gelsons store in Marina del Rey on the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend.  That was also a successful sampling event.   Much thanks to Mona and her staff at both the VB locations.

We are working to have our macarons available at more Gelsons stores.  Please stay tuned …   In the meantime, come pick up some of our macarons at the Viktor Benes Bakery at Gelsons Westlake Village and Gelsons Marina del Rey.

We started selling our macarons at Paris in a Cup in Orange, CA about 2 weeks ago: http://blog.xtpatisserie.com/?p=135.  To attract more foot traffic and to promote our macarons, chef Xuan Ngo created a macaron tower and owner Cheryl at Paris in a Cup was willing to give up some prime real estate on the bay display window up front for our tower.  Thanks Cheryl !

XT Patisserie's Macaron Tower at Paris in a Cup in Display Window

 Here’s a closeup of the tower:

 

Closeup of Macaron Tower

A shot from inside the store:

Again, many thanks to Chery and Valerie at Paris in a Cup.  Please stop by and pick up a few boxes of our macarons!

  Paris In A Cup
  119 S Glassell St
  Orange CA 92866
  Phone (714) 538-9411
  http://www.parisinacup.com

This morning, chef Xuan Ngo and I were invited to the City of Placentia – State of the City Address by new mayor Joseph Aguirre at the Alta Vista Country Club in Placentia.  One would ask why were we invited to the State of the City address by the Mayor?  What the heck? 

Eventhough our commercial kitchen and business license is in the city of Fullerton, both Chef Xuan and I live in the city of Placentia.  Actually, we caught the Mayor and city officials’ attention from our participation in the LA Chocolate Salon in 10/09.  Apparently one of the attendees brought it up to the Mayor that there are Artisan Chocolatiers in his city !!!

Below is a picture of Chef Xuan and I with Mayor Joseph Aguirre. 

Chef Xuan Ngo, Mayor Joseph Aguirre and Tuan Trinh

  Paris In A Cup
  119 S Glassell St
  Orange CA 92866
  Phone (714) 538-9411
  http://www.parisinacup.com

Paris in a Cup is a tea salon located in old town Orange, CA, right by the Orange circle.  From their website at www.parisinacup.com:

  “Tea will be served in the grand salon with a French flair. Before entering the salon, you will be tempted with gourmet chocolates, teas, cookies, and many more delicious delicacies in the market. The gift boutique will feature beautiful jewelry, accessories, and fragrances just to name a few”

Our macarons are also featured in Paris in a Cup’s tea menu offering.

The following 12-piece box is now available for $20 a box at Paris in a Cup.

12 Pc Box of XT Patisserie's Macarons

You can read Paris in a Cup’s owner Cheryl’s blog on our partnership at http://parisinacup.blogspot.com/2010/02/bonjour-i-hope-everyone-had-happy.html

We are very excited about this partnership as we now have a retail location in the heart of Orange County that our customers can come for pick up.  Customers can now either order the macarons online at http://www.xtpatisserie.com/macarons or pick up at Paris in a Cup.

Thank you to Cheryl and Valerie at Paris in a Cup …

Below are some more pictures of our delicious and colorful macarons.

Diane Cu and Todd Porter came to our commercial kitchen in Fullerton last week to do an article for the Nguoi Viet newspaper.  Todd took lots of pictures while Diane was doing the interviewing.  They stopped by while Chef Xuan was preparing some Saigon Cinnamon chocolates

Check out the article at http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=108250&z=19

The article appeared in print on Thursday, Februray 11, 2010 and appeared online on 2/12.

Big thanks to Diane Cu, Todd Porter, and editor Anh Do for the article.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi (Happy New Year)

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For this Valentine’s Day, we are doing 3 types of chocolates:

• Caramel Vanilla Fleur de Sel in milk chocolate
• Passion fruit in white chocolate
• Vanilla in dark chocolates

All these chocolates are in beautiful heart shaped to impress your loved ones.  What will express your love louder than the hearts below.

For Valentine’s Day special, we are doing Free Shipping for orders of 3 boxes of either chocolates or macarons.

These heart-shaped chocolates are only for limited time, so please order them quickly at www.xtpatisserie.com/chocolates.  Because we are only currently selling these heart-shaped chocolates for Valentine’s Day, we have removed all of our regular 12 flavors from our site.  They will be back online after V-day.

We will ship starting the week of Monday 2/8/2010 up to Thursday 2/11.  Please remember that for delivery to greater OC and LA, shipping is next day.  Thus, for those procastinators living in OC and LA, you will have up till 2/11, 12 PM to place your orders !!!

The holidays are fast approaching …

We are running a promotion to help out the proscatinors out there who are still looking for last minute gifts.

We are offering free shipping to any, that’s right, any of the 48 continental states on orders of 3 or more boxes of macarons (www.xtpatisserie.com/macarons) or chocolates (www.xtpatisserie.com/chocolates).

Order now thru Sunday 12/20, and we will ship on Monday 12/21.  Orders shipping to greater OC and LA will arrive on Tuesday 12/22.  Orders to other western states will arrive on Wednesday 12/23.  Orders to further eastern states will ship by 3 day air, thus arriving on Thursday, 12/24.  For shipping schedules, please see www.xuanpatisserie.com/shipping.aspx.

Yay!!! XT Patisserie won 3 first places: http://www.tastetv.com/sf-lasalon_awards09.html

• Top Artisan Chocolatier
• Best Flavored Chocolate
• Most Gifted Chocolatier / Chocolate Maker

Overall, we collected 7 awards: 3 first, 2 second, and 2 third

For a first timer attending the event, it was quite impressive to place 3 first places !!!

Chef Xuan, I and our team would like to thank all those who supported us and especially the judges …  Thanks

As mentioned in my previous post, there were lots of foodies and bloggers at the LA Luxury Chocolate Salon.

XT Patisserie had lots of mention in blogs and newspaper article:

http://www.lasplash.com/publish/Los_Angeles_Restaurant_Reviews_123/Los_Angeles_Chocolate_Salon_Review.php
http://gastronomyblog.com/2009/10/11/los-angeles-luxury-chocolate-salon-top-10-tastes/
http://losangeles.grubstreet.com/2009/10/slideshow_what_you_missed_at_t.html
http://dianatakesabite.blogspot.com/2009/10/3rd-annual-chocolate-salon-and-dundie.html
http://insomniaceatsfoodmostlyplants.blogspot.com/2009/10/death-by-chocolate-la-chocolate-salon.html
http://ow.ly/15VQoj

There were also blogs on the event that did not mention XT Patisserie (boo !!!), but I will list them here anyways.  Why not?

http://eatsomethingsexy.com/blogs/amyreiley/2009/10/12/overload-judging-a-chocolate-competition
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2009/10/scenes-from-the-2009-la-luxury-chocolate-salon.html
http://ladychocolatier.net/blog/?p=510
http://teenageglutster.blogspot.com/2009/10/35-chocolatiers-later-la-chocolate.html
http://foodshethought.blogspot.com/2009/10/la-luxury-chocolate-salon-2009.html

I would like to thank all the bloggers who attended the event and blog about us.  Thanks a bunch !!!

XT Patisserie participated in the LA Luxury Chocolate Salon (http://www.lachocolatesalon.com) in Pasadena on October 11, 2009. Finally found some time to post.  Will follow with more blog reviews and awards from the show.

Here is our table at the show before the crowd arrives

XT Patisserie - at LA Chocolate Salon before the crowd arrives

 Here are a few close up shots of our goodies

XT Patisserie - goodies at our table

XT Patisserie - Artisan chocolates, macarons, chocolate tuile with nuts

 Here’s is our 12-piece chocolate box:

XT Patisserie - 12 piece chocolate box

We were allowed 1 hr to set up our table and display all our goodies.  Four of us came early to set up the tables.  We barely finished setting up the tables when the crowd arrives sharply at 11 AM when the door opens.  Here is a pic of the crowd:

XT Patisserie - crowd at LA Chocolate Salon

We brought our 12 flavors of chocolates as well as the vanilla and chocolate macarons.  The macarons were a hit, as they were something new and different apart from all the chocolates at the show.  We actually have 10 flavors of the macarons, but decided to only bring the bite-size vanilla and chocolate flavors since it’s a chocolate show.  We didn’t want to be kicked out by offering all the macarons flavors!

Although the crowd likes all the chocolate flavors, cinnamon, passion fruit, kalamansi, hazelnut were the most favorites, with the Saigon cinnamon being the favorite.

There were lots of foodies and bloggers among the crowd.  I will post their blogs and the awards in the next post.

Here is a picture of me, Tuan Trinh, and our pastry chef, Xuan Ngo at the end of the show at 5 PM, looking all exhausted from standing for 7 hours without food !