Les Secrets Gourmands de Noémie: The Macaron Class in Batignolles Worth Seeking Out
The atelier on rue Nollet is pink, and Noémie is happy to explain why. Pink is her favorite color. She renovated the whole space herself and chose every detail to her own taste, and the result is a roomy, bright kitchen in Batignolles with daylight coming in from both sides, from the street at the front and a terrace at the back. We arrived after a few days of rain, on a sunny morning with the first real chill of the season in the air, and walking in felt like stepping into someone’s very considered idea of what a kitchen should be. Everything had a place. The trays, the templates, the tools, all of it arranged by someone who has taught macaron classes in Paris for years and knows exactly what the day needs before it starts.
The class begins with coffee at the table. There were four of us that morning, which made it feel less like a class and more like being invited into someone’s kitchen. Noémie, the founder of Les Secrets Gourmands de Noémie, is a graduate of the Lenôtre culinary school, one of the most serious pastry institutions in France, and at some point during that first coffee she mentioned she used to work in marketing. Just like that, casually, as if it were the most natural thing. I didn’t see it coming at all. Standing in that pink atelier surrounded by macaron templates she has been using for years, marketing felt like it belonged to a completely different person.
She is funny in a way that sneaks up on you, not performing, just at ease, and that ease spreads through the room. She explains what needs explaining, offers a tip when she sees something worth correcting, and then leaves you to get on with it. There is a trust in that.
She told us the flavors before we started, lemon and pistachio. Lemon is not usually my first choice in a dessert, so I didn’t think much of it at the time. But Noémie makes the filling as a curd, using the Italian meringue method, and when I finally tasted it I understood why it is her favorite. Slightly chewy, sweet and sour at the same time, the kind of thing that makes you rethink what you thought you didn’t like.
One of the women in the group had come because of a dinner party. A friend had brought macarons and when she asked where they came from, the friend said she had learned to make them from Noémie. Hearing it in her own kitchen, Noémie looked up and asked for the name, of the student, of the one who had made the macarons. A small moment, but it said something about the way she thinks about the people who pass through here.
At the end we packed everything into boxes and slid them into the fridge while still talking, and then eventually we left. Before heading out, the others asked Noémie for tips on where to go in the neighborhood, and she pointed them toward a street nearby with local jewellery and small shops, the kind of thing you don’t find unless someone tells you. I made it one step outside before opening my box. The lemon ones didn’t last long.
Les Secrets Gourmands de Noémie is at 92 rue Nollet, on the ground floor, directly on the street in the 17th arrondissement. The macaron class in Paris runs about two and a half hours, is available in English, and welcomes children aged 7 and up. You leave with everything you made. Current dates and prices are on her website: www.lessecretsgourmandsdenoemie.com. You can also follow the atelier on Instagram at @lessecretsgourmandsdenoemie.