L’Opéra is a high-end, authentic pastry and bakery house. L’Opéra, from its inception, has been all about quality and excellence. It was borne out of the longing of Laurent Samandari (Co-founder and Managing Director, L’ Opéra) in 2008 for authentic French breads and pastries while working in India. Along with the family, who was also living in India and supported his burgeoning and ambitious project, an in-depth market study of the high-end Food and Beverage segment in Delhi was undertaken. With the aid of the French Embassy in Delhi, who graciously provided their purpose-built kitchen for testing, and the encouragement of the family’s Delhiite friends and expats to go further, the project grew legs.
After much encouragement from expats and Indians alike, who appreciated French culinary excellence, the first L’Opéra outlet opened its doors in March 2011 in Khan Market. L’Opéra is setting a new trend in the Indian market for high-end culinary products, based on innovative ideas regarding quality, atmosphere and presentation. L’Opéra is the first authentic French pastry and Bakery enterprise in India with 11 outlets.
L’Opéra celebrated the 60th anniversary of the creation of one of its signature cakes, the world-renowned Opera cake on September 4th in Select CITYWALK to the tunes of the Neemrana Music Foundation’s opera music and a large imitation of the Paris Opera House, made with chocolate, with the presence of the Consul of the French Embassy. L’Opéra held a cake-cutting ceremony in honor of this occasion, with the presence of Dimitri Demianenko, Consul of France in Delhi who represented Ambassador François Richier. He congratulated L’Opéra for bringing the very best of French culture to Delhi. L’Opéra’s Executive Chairman, Kazem Samandari warmly addressed the crowd and enlightened everyone with a few words about the history of the Opera Cake. To quote him, “We usually celebrate anniversaries with cakes, but today, it is the cake we celebrate”.
Chef de Partie, Nauman Qureshi, who created the model chocolate Opera House, under the direction of Executive Chef Cédric Houzé, also attended the event. He commented, “The reason behind the creation of the cake, was to create a dessert whose layers were clearly visible, and for which one mouthful of it was enough to discern the taste of the entire cake.” The Neemrana Music Foundation choir performed several musical opera pieces to complement this occasion and bought the whole event to life with the incredible melody.
The Opera cake, one of France’s timeless pastries, turns 60 this year. Known throughout the world, the rectangular cake is made of three layers of Joconde almond flavored sponge soaked in coffee syrup and topped with coffee butter cream and chocolate ganache. The top is covered with a deep dark chocolate icing. The classic Opera Cake is a work in six acts. There are three thin layers of almond cake, each soaked in intoxicating coffee syrup; a layer of espresso-flavored buttercream; one layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache; and a topping of chocolate glaze. Traditionally, the cake is decorated with its name written in glaze across the top and finished with a piece of shimmering gold leaf. It is obviously a rich cake, but it is surprisingly not a filling cake. It was created in 1955 by Cyril Gavillon, a pastry chef working for Dalloyau, a shop owned by Gaston Lenotre, who would then become the founder of France’s most prominent culinary school. His wife, Andrée, told him it reminded her of the Paris Opera House, Palais Garnier.
The event was a huge success, and people who elsewise wouldn’t have even heard of the Opera Cake, due to the cake cutting ceremony, not only tasted and became familiar with the cake, but also fell in love with the lasting, close to heaven like delicate flavors and textures of the undying cake.
