Albert Adrià, who was voted The World's Best Pastry Chef by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, has debuted his latest interpretation of a classic dessert, baklava, which is now available for guests to try at his only London site, Cakes & Bubbles, at Hotel Café Royal.
Adrià has taken the traditional ingredients of classic baklava and elevated them into something new and inspiring. The baklava is served as two delicate pillows of crunchy filo pastry filled with a light, airy foam made from pistachio and white chocolate, then brushed with floral orange blossom honey and finished with shavings of pistachio. The dish comes served on a decadent golden plate. Part of the Neoclassic Style offering at Cakes & Bubbles, the baklava costs £12 for two pieces or £18 for the baklava and Moroccan tea service.
Cakes & Bubbles offers the perfect blend of tradition and modernity – with the whimsy and playfulness that has come to define Adrià’s work – serving a parade of exceptional desserts that defy description. The renowned ‘Tickets’ cheesecake (£12), a delicately made and exquisite dessert with notes of hazelnut and complete with a non-traditional rind of white chocolate offers customers a taste from one of the most sought-after reservations in the restaurant world. Marking the opening of Cakes & Bubbles this lauded dessert has been removed from the Tickets menu and is available exclusively to visitors to the London site. Other ‘classics’ such as Egg flan (£5)with dark caramel and the Light carrot cake (£7)sit alongside a selection of specials such as Air-pancake (£14)with caramelized banana. Desserts of fresh fruit such as baby pineapple with lime zest and coconut (£9) round out the menu alongside traditional pastries. A dessert tasting experience is also available including a choice of four or eight desserts sized for sharing or solitary discovery, as Adrià puts it “excitement is found in two or three bites”.
Originally inspired by La Dolça, the much-loved area at Tickets in Barcelona reserved for experiencing desserts, Cakes & Bubbles is Adrià’s first bricks and mortar site outside Spain.
Cakes & Bubbles adds to an exciting culinary program at Hotel Café Royal, which has been developing with increasing fervor over the past few years. In addition to Adrià’s previous project in 2016, the Roca brothers of El Celler de Can Roca brought their famous Girona-influenced cuisine to the iconic hotel that same year. Cakes & Bubbles also joins newly opened Laurent, a 110-cover restaurant helmed by internationally renowned French chef Laurent Tourondel and Ziggy’s, a bar in homage to one of Hotel Café Royal’s most renowned past patrons, David Bowie.
Cakes & Bubbles is open from Sunday – Tuesday, 11:00 – 20:00 and Wednesday – Saturday 11:00 – 22:00.
