The pastry chef of the Ritz Paris unveils Cœur d’Ourson, a festive log conceived as a sensory evocation of childhood, combining Dulcey chocolate and vanilla marshmallow.
Some festive desserts bet everything on visual sophistication, while others seek first of all to revive a memory. Olivier Lainé, pastry chef of the Ritz Paris, clearly chooses the second path with Cœur d’Ourson, his 2026 Christmas log, conceived as a gourmet evocation of moments shared with family and of childhood wonder, photographed for the occasion by Emanuela Cino.
The teddy bear, the centrepiece of the creation, combines the soft, biscuity notes of Dulcey chocolate with the indulgence of milk chocolate. At its heart, a vanilla marshmallow enclosed in white chocolate brings an airy texture, while a dark chocolate kepi filled with toasted-bread praline closes the composition on a toasted, more grown-up note, which balances the childlike indulgence of the rest of the piece and avoids the pitfall of a dessert that is uniformly sweet.
Beneath this endearing figure lies a far more elaborate entremets: a 65% Peru chocolate mousse flavoured with spices, a vanilla crémeux covered with hazelnut caramel and fleur de sel, a soft chocolate-chip sponge to ensure the transition between textures, and a chocolate-hazelnut praline crunch to provide the crisp contrast that the whole would otherwise lack. “I imagined this creation as a gourmet evocation of the most precious memories of Christmas: sharing with family and the wonder of childhood,” the chef explains.
This layered construction, in which each texture answers the previous one, reflects a demanding technical approach concealed beneath a deliberately childlike aesthetic. It is precisely this tension between the form, immediately accessible and endearing, and the substance, considerably more sophisticated in its composition, that sets a grand hotel’s log apart from a more conventional festive pastry.
Nor is the choice of the teddy bear as a central motif an isolated coincidence: the figure holds a particular place in the imagination of the Ritz Paris, regularly called upon in its festive creations as a familiar landmark that regulars find again from one year to the next, while rediscovering it each edition in a different technical form and finish.
This fidelity to a single motif, reinterpreted differently each season, allows the house to build a form of ritual around its Christmas log rather than starting from scratch every year. The loyal guest thus knows broadly what to expect — the teddy bear figure, the chef’s technical rigour — while discovering, with each edition, a new flavour interpretation of the same symbol.
An emblematic figure of the Ritz Paris, the teddy bear is adorned this year with a heart of chiselled, sparkling contours, a symbol of elegance, refinement and wonder in the words of the house. Available from 1 to 30 December 2026, in a limited edition priced at 180 euros for six to eight people, this 30-centimetre-high log must be ordered 48 hours in advance and collected directly at the Ritz Paris — the kind of constraint that, every year, turns a festive dessert into a small event in its own right.
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