A Cordon Bleu Trained Baker Is Selling Delectable Croissants In Dongzhimen- For Only RMB 18 Each

A Cordon Bleu-Trained Baker Sells Delectable Croissants In Dongzhimen – For Only RMB 18 Each

Kyle Mullin | Jul 19, 2017 11:30 am | Add a comment | 2615 reads

Too often, Beijingers craving high-quality, affordable French-style bread find themselves out of luck, shelling out for pricey imitations that pale in comparison to the real thing. That's all about to change though, especially for Dongzhimen dwellers looking for a low key, neighborhood style bakery to get their grain fix. Yes, the newly opened Alesia La Boulangerie Française on Shizipo Jie (right next door to Pizza Saporita, formerly Pizza+) is sure to attract throngs with its fluffy croissants, pain au chocolate, pain aux olives and pain aux tomates, all available for an astoundingly low RMB 18 each.

Those prices are oh-so-reasonable when you consider their imported ingredients like French butter, not to mention their careful craftsmanship. Chalk that affordability up to the lack of overhead at the small bakery, which has three seats for anyone who wants to eat in at what is otherwise very much a takeaway joint. The skeletal operation consists of Alesia founders and bakers Shuang Chai – a Beijing native and Cordon Bleu alumnus – and her partner and co-founder Andy Chu, a Taiwanese chef who she met while working in F&B in France.

Aside from her laudable culinary schooling, Chai also honed her craft at the Michelin-starred Parisian restaurant L'arôme and has worked with and befriended numerous restaurateurs in Beijing. Indeed, her bon amis Ignasi Prats at the recently opened Fab bakery is among the exclusive few here in the capital to pass the pastry muster as far as Chai is concerned, leaving her to sing his praises during our recent visit to Alesia (that is, until she began lamenting the prices and greasy quality of many of the other French-style bakeries in Beijing).

Chai is sure to become even more well known in Beijing's F&B circles before long, because she's coordinating foodie seminars in the 798 art district to unveil the nuanced differences between various types of olive oil and other European ingredients (the classes are only in Chinese for now, though we hope demand will eventually lead to English iterations). See via WeChat ID: FCStudioLab.

Sure, we'd love to see a wider array of baked goods on offer at Alesia. But the somewhat narrow current menu allows Chai and Chu to really hone in and serve up a handful of deeply adept items at a low price. These truly are some of the best breads we'd had in Beijing-- the croissants boasting a subtly buttery aftertaste and a golden crisp exterior along with being fluffy soft inside; the pain au chocolate, meanwhile, has an equally nuanced texture and a sweetly lingering flavor.

What's more: Chai plans to switch up the menu regularly, baking breads flecked with local organic fruits like peaches, pears, and others when they're in season. These attributes should help Alesia La Boulangerie Française rise in popularity and esteem like well-prepared dough in an oven, and we can easily see droves of Beijingers flocking to this uniquely authentic French bakery.