Le Gouter with treats from Bonpastry to celebrate Elena, the Stanford Graduate

Elena graduated from Stanford this weekend.  She had a total of three ceremonies and the first ceremony was for her human right’s minor and occured on Friday afternoon. Afterwards we celebrated by having a Le Gouter which is a French tradition of eating sweet things in the afternoon.  One of Elena’s favorite things is apples so one of the things I really wanted us to have was a Tarte Tartin which is a French apple tart and, of course, one of the 1000 Foods to Eat Before you Die.  I also wanted to be sure we covered other French pastry traditions, so I did my research and found a true French bakery called Bonpastry located in Carlsbad.  They do not have a storefront and after you order you can pick up in Carlsbad or have the items delivered (we choose delivery).

While the wife, Christine, is the pastry chef (amazing), her husband (also amazing) handles the orders.  There were two things spectacular about our order, the first is the taste of each item. We had the tarte, mini fruit and mini lemon tarts and chocolate and vanilla macaroons.  All were superb.  To die for superb. As in, you really need to consider ordering from these guys if you need a cake or pastry… As in the best lemon tart I have ever eaten.  Chewy, almondy macaroons and don’t even get me started on the tarte.  American tarts are just drizzled in sugar and this one was not too sweat and with flavors of the apples the star.  The second spectacular thing was customer service. The attention to detail, the personalization was astounding.  We paired the deserts that Bonpastry brought us with a cherry fool and fresh fruit and the best champagne:  a Laurent-Perrier Brut that Is not too sweet to go with the sweet pastries.  Our friends Donna and Todd joined us in the garden, and we celebrated my amazing kid.  Elena is a force to be reckoned with and I am so very proud of her.  Congrats, Elena!