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Dear L’Opéra Friends and Customers,
Happy New Year from all of us at L’Opéra.
2019 was a challenging year for the Indian economy, but a year of exciting growth & expansion for L’Opéra.
Between December of 2018 and December of 2019, we opened 7 new outlets around the city: One Pâtisserie-Boulangerie in Defence Colony, five Salons de Thé in Green Park, GK 2, Max Towers, Aerocity and Basant Lok, and our first ever Café Restaurant in Civil Lines. In addition, we completely renovated our flagship store in Khan Market without needing to close it during the process. In December, that same store won the 2019 Grand Finale Award for Best Pâtisserie in all of India, presented by Gourmet Passport, BBC GoodFood India and
FoodFood TV. We are looking forward to 2020 with a great deal of confidence in our continued expansion and progress.
Wishing you all the best in 2020 as well,
David Bowers, Editor
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Of all the new outlets of 2019, two deserve special mention. First of all is the L’Opéra in Civil Lines: our first Café Restaurant with a full food menu and selection of offerings for all categories of patrons. This venue provides a variety of cozy spaces for different types of meals: whether you want to be alone for a while and collect your thoughts over a pastry and tea, dine with a partner or small group of friends and family, or even meet with a larger group in the private room at the mezzanine floor, this one place shines literally and figuratively like a diamond with many facets.
The L’Opéra at Basant Lok is a new Salon de Thé, and together with the Café Restaurant in Civil Lines, these are the first L’Opéra outlets to span two floors. They each offer a selection of options for lunch and dinner in addition to the pastries and desserts for which L’Opéra is already famous. Everything you’ll see at either of these spaces is up to the L’Opéra standards of exquisite quality that you already trust, and the expanded space gives you more room to sit and enjoy the atmosphere for as long as you like.
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L’Opéra is often featured in the various media publications of India. A selection of these articles and mentions can be viewed on the L’Opéra website, www.loperaindia.com
One notable event was on 19 October 2019, the grand opening of our new outlet at Basant Lok, our sixth Salon de Thé and the first-ever outlet across two floors. It was an event high on culture, a rendez-vous
with the finest French food, and was formally inaugurated by H.E. Emmanuel Lenain, the Ambassador of France to India, who in a glittering ceremony, said “It's a pleasure to be with you on this Saturday. It's a nice way to come back to Paris. I have a good feeling; I don't know if it's Saint-Germain-des-Prés or Rue de Rivoli but it's really Paris. It's a good blend of French charm and more Indian luxury, it's well done. All my congratulations.”
Seen at the event were over one hundred guests, from the worlds of diplomacy and business to arts and fashion, who heaped praise on the state-of-the-art outlet, including the various ambassadors & eminent personalities of the town including the names like the Ambassador of The Czech Republic, H.E. Milan
Hovorka, the Ambassador of Greece, H.E. Dionussios Kyvetos, the Ambassador of Chile H.E. Mr. Juan Angulo, Ambassador of Columbia, H.E. Mr Alvaro Sandoval Bernal, Deputy Chief of Mission, South Africa, Mr. Ben Joubert and obviously the Chief Guest, H.E. Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain of France and many more diplomats and prominent guests.
Another notable event came on December 3rd, 2019, when L’Opéra Basant Lok co-hosted an event dedicated to the “Ecuadorian Immortal Roses”. The exhibition of these flowers witnessed over fifty guests including Ambassadors as well as personalities from the world of business. H.E. Ambassador
Héctor Cueva Jácome, on the occasion said “These roses are symbols of love and admiration for their receivers. These roses are waiting for their admirers at various cafés of L’Opéra in Delhi, NCR, as no other sites can be the better abode for them to be displayed and admired, as L’Opéra has become the synonym of destination of savour and gusto in Delhi, NCR.”
These long-lasting roses aren’t made from silk or any other material, and even though they may look artificial, they are quite real, and will last for up to 5 years. To preserve them, the roses are cut in the midst of their most beautiful blossoming. The stems of the recently cut flowers are immediately submerged in a conserving substance made from glycerine and other plant components, and the flower sap is gradually replaced by this liquid. After this process, which lasts for a few days, each flower is examined to remove damaged petals or leaves. |
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I don't know about you but when I hear the expression “commitment to quality”, I immediately get suspicious. It’s one of those ideals that’s easy to talk about but hard to achieve. But before I joined the L’Opéra staff, I was a L’Opéra customer, and I remember thinking how every time I had a specific pastry or dessert, they always tasted consistently the same. I supposed it must be pretty easy to get it that way.
Turns out it is very difficult. When you walk into a store and see everything in beauty and order, it’s easy to remark how lovely it is, but it’s hard to imagine how many hours went into finding the right chairs for the nicest tables, or the perfect lights to immune the spotless walls and marble floors. The food we eat at L’Opéra is only one part of the total symphony of experience, every note of which has to be in perfect harmony with every other.
And there are so many things that can go wrong. In the process that starts with selecting and purchasing the highest quality ingredients and preparing recipes in the kitchen and goes to delivering delicate French desserts over bumpy Delhi roads and presenting them appropriately at the outlets, a lot of things can go wrong, and a lot of attention needs to be paid to make sure you get the treat we intended you to have. The staff need extensive training and dedication to excellence in itself, and take honest pride, as anyone should, in making something truly delicious for others to enjoy.
- David Bowers
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For this newsletter, we interviewed Sowmya Gascon, the marketing manager, who has interesting parallels with L’Opéra as a company:
1. What can you tell us about your background?
I am half-French, half-Indian: having lived in both these countries, it has shaped my early professional career. In terms of education, I initially focused on Euro-Asian international relations and then graduated with a Masters in Economics and Business from the Paris Institute of Political Studies. For the past years, my interest and experiences have been in marketing studies, consumer analysis and inter-cultural relations.
2. How did you start working at L’Opéra?
While doing my higher studies, I wanted to promote the French savoir-faire in India, and L’Opéra appeared to be a perfect fit. Indeed, L’Opéra does offer high quality products and a truly French experience through its various outlets in Delhi.
3. What do you do here?
I manage L'Opéra's marketing team, ensuring L'Opéra's image and messages are well communicated to customers online and offline for each festival and campaign. We also promote L'Opéra by participating in and hosting some events.
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In English, the words “flaky pastry pie” don’t really do a Galette justice. This is the flaky pastry pie of Kings. Filled with a butter rich smooth mixture of almond cream and pastry cream called
“frangipane”, this cake is shaped like a crown and often eaten as a celebration of a Christian holiday called Epiphany. It tastes a little like a mix between a croissant and a cake, and it
doubles as a kind of game for the family to enjoy: a little surprise figurine hidden somewhere in the cake. Will you be the first at your table to find it?
Here's how you play: The Galette des Rois is cut in even slices by the one person and shared amongst everyone around the table. Whoever finds the figurine is named King or Queen for the
day and gets to wear the paper crown which comes with the Galette. The named King or Queen picks his or her King or Queen and gets to glow with pride for the next few days, until the next
Galette.
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“The entire family has unanimously decided that L’Opéra’s Galette (des Rois) is the best in the world.”
H.E. André Aranha Correa do Lago, Ambassador of Brazil to India
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OUR OUTLETS
Civil Lines | Vegas Mall, Dwarka | Khan Market | Bikaner House | Defence Colony Market | Basant Lok (Priya Market) | Green Park Main Market | GK2, M Block Main Market | DLF Galleria, Gurgaon | Select City Walk, Saket | DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj | PVR Director’s Cut, Vasant Kunj | Epicuria, Nehru Place | Max Towers, Noida | Aerocity, Worldmark2 | French Embassy | DLF Golf and Country Club | Ravissant Blliis, New Friends Colony | IDA Hotel, Dehradun
COMING SOON
Club Road, Punjabi Bagh | IREO, Golf Course Extension Road
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