“C’est l’heure du goûter!”
That’s what Marani Deli owner Alex Grenouiller would yell when arriving at his grandparents’ house after school. “It’s time for le goûter!”
The simple, slightly sweet sandwich is a French favourite. “A very traditional gouter option is a slice of bread with butter on it and a few squares of chocolate,” he tells Broadsheet. “We had that all the time in the ’90s.”
When Rozelle’s Victoire Boulangerie – which makes the “most classic French baguette” Grenouiller has seen in Australia – added smaller rustic rolls to the mix, there was only one thing to do.
“I thought, ‘If I’m going to make it, I’m going to use the best of the three ingredients I can source.’” He landed on Valrhona chocolate, made in the Rhone Valley, about 30 minutes from where he grew up, and Beurre de Baratte d’Isigny’s salted Le Conquérant butter from Normandy.
“The quantity of butter and chocolate is almost wild, but this is where the magic is at. The texture combination when you bite into it – first, the crusty outside part of the bread, then you chew through the dough, then you get to the smooth and generous amount of butter and that hard chubby chunk of chocolate – brings all the feels.”
As far as Grenouiller knows, Marani is the only place to get a goûter in Oz. Here are all the details.
What: le goûter, a French chocolate and butter sandwich.
How: a Victoire roll is cut in half, then layered with a “decadent slice” of Le Conquérant salted butter and a generous square of Valrhona chocolate. Your choice of milk (40 per cent Jivara) or dark (66 per cent Caraibe or 70 per cent Guanaja, depending on availability). It’s sandwiched, then wrapped up like the gift it is in spangly gold foil.
Cost: $9.50
Where: Thursday to Sunday, at Marani Deli in Newtown
maranideli.com.au
@maranideli
Dining and Cooking