Last year, the Internet was obsessed with Dubai chocolate. Earlier this year, a fruit ice cream became all the rage. Now, all eyes are on a beautiful fruit pastry that has three layers of sweetness.
The “viral fruit pastries,” as most people call them, have been making the rounds on TikTok for about a month. But they’re not exactly new in the pastry world. Acclaimed French pastry chef Cédric Grolet became social media famous years ago in part due to his surreal fruit pastries that pull from French and Asian techniques. Now, these desserts have taken on a life of their own, with Los Angeles shops and influencers bringing them to the forefront of TikTok.
Videos on social media show people buying various versions of the pastries, such as mango, strawberry, raspberry and mushroom (not mushroom flavored). Across the country, shops already making these pastries have blown up, and even more are trying their hand at it. They’ve only recently become available in Houston at two Middle Eastern dessert shops: Royal Roastery ($9.99/each) and Suzie’s Pastry Shoppe ($14/each).
The local shops have seen business skyrocket with their Dubai chocolate creations, and these fruit pastries could be the next big thing. Royal Roastery owner Mohamad Iweinat said customers were asking for the fruit pastries. Royal Roastery has become a go-to place for trendy items; its TikTok video announcing the shop would sell the pastries has 1.8 million views, followed by another video with 1.5 million views. The most popular flavor is mango, Iweinat said.
On Suzie’s first day selling them, a line formed outside the shop, owner Mohamad Kachach said. Both have been selling hundreds a day.
Kachach said his family-owned business wanted to sell the pastries they call “Suzielicious,” after seeing the trend and how successful the Dubai chocolate has been for them. They’ve been selling them for just over a week now. While Dubai chocolate is still Suzie’s No. 1 sold item, but the fruit pastries are climbing in sales.
“(Keeping up with trends) changes our business a lot, you could say, like triple what we used to do before,” Kachach said.
Making the fruit pastries is very labor intensive, he says, and the recipe, which takes about 24 hours start to finish, took about three weeks to nail down. The innermost layer is a real-fruit filling that usually matches the shape of the fruit, like strawberry. That is wrapped in a cloud-like mouse and finally covered in a thin chocolate mold that is hand-painted. It makes for an initial crunch, followed by a soft and gooey interior.
“There’s no machine involved. It’s all handmade,” Kachach said. “We do not use anything that’s pre-made. Everything is made fresh daily from scratch.”
Customers including Quynh Nguyen are hungry to try food trends. She’d previously been to Suzie’s to try the Dubai chocolate bar. And when fruit ice creams went viral, she said she hurried to H-Mart to buy those, too. She bought a pear, orange and berry flavor of the fruit pastries at Suzie’s on Friday to try on camera with her friends later that day.
“I’ve been seeing it and a lot of people trying it all over my social media, and honestly, I’m very influenced by things,” Quynh said.
Dining and Cooking