Maisonie

The house

Maisonie is Nathalie Van Der Straeten, and the desserts carry her preferences closely: the best Belgian chocolate, rich cream, and recipes balanced rather than sweetened into submission.

The preparation stays artisanal; the equipment behind it is modern. That combination is the point. It means a kitchen gets a dessert with the character of something made by hand, at a consistency and a volume a restaurant can actually build a menu around.

It arrives in a 1.2 kg piping bag, which is the part chefs tend to care about. Cut the tip, pipe it into a glass, a cup, a tart shell or a chocolate cup, and the dessert is yours rather than a bought-in one that looks the same on every terrace on the street.