Pompidou’s Patisseries Dessert Experience is an afternoon adults-only dining event held in Remy. The 6-course experience is named after the dessert chef from the film Ratatouille and is offered at 3:30 PM on a sea day on cruises of 4-nights or longer aboard the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. This review will cover our experience which I barely touched on in our recent Disney Fantasy day 6 trip log.
Looking back, the experience has gone through a few name alterations, originally it was called Remy Presents Pompidou’s Patisseries Dessert Experience, when DCL began to promote this event it became, Remy Featuring Pompidou’s Patisseries Dessert Experience. For the most part, it is listed as Remy Dessert Experience with the longer verbiage appearing in the description with another variant appearing on the menu. One last note, this is different from the Petites Assiettes de Remy (Small Plates of Remy), a 6-course culinary journey offered on select embarkation evenings.
Upon arrival to the the podium outside Remy and Palo on Deck 13 aft, we checked-in for the dessert experience and had a seat in Meridian.
This is one of those experiences where there is just one seating which everyone is taken into Remy and seated in the main dining area at about the same time.
These stools are not just for purses. They are also used for the camera that blogger feels the need to bring into the classy restaurant. Although, I can tell you from past experiences, photos of Remy food never do it justice.
The menu is pretty barebones providing only hints at what is in store for each course. I am all for this as it really adds a bit of mystery to the overall experience.
The sommelier provided an overview of the wine experience which is offered for an additional $25 per person. Although it would have been highly bloggable, neither myself nor my wife were interested in the sweet wines. I will say, a good number of the other guests this afternoon opted for the full dessert and wine experience.
The 3 wines included with the experience are listed below. There was a fourth bottle on the table during the experience, the Chateau d’Yquem – Sauternes 1998 France, which was unused. Not sure if was there because of the 1998 vintage which is the same year the Disney Magic set sail, or just to let people think they were getting a class of wine from a half bottle that runs around $100.
- La fleur D’or – Sauternes 2011 France
- Diszhako – Tokji aszu 2007 Hungary
- Pillitteri – Ice Wine 2007 Canada
It was now time for Executive Chef Patrick to begin presenting each course as for obvious reasons, the Executive Pastry Chef of Remy was a little busy. Up first was the Pomme, which is French for apple.
This little green jelled, silver leafed, Toy Story alien looking dome had a big surprise inside. The pomme dessert was very light with just the right amount of sweetness.
The second course was the Poire, a delicious layered pear offering with a thinly sliced pears garnish. I ate this so quickly, I cannot even tell you what each layer tasted like, but it was really good.
The third course was the Tarte Citron Fruit Rouge. This was another great dish and at this point it shot up to #1. I was immediately drawn to the plating and just look at that raspberry, the raspberry is filled with even more deliciousness. This one was Emily’s favorite overall.
Cutting into the tarte revealed a lovely lemon curd. Emily & I love anything citrus in general. Patrick began to introduce the fourth course by asking us to guess what we thought it might be. When I saw coco my brain processed it as cocoa. Knowing the final course was chocolate, this had to be something else… IT WAS COCONUT RAVIOLI. NO IT WAS COCONUT RAVIOLI ATOP DICED PASSIONFRUIT WITH PASSIONFRUIT ICE CREAM WITH LIME FOAM & ZEST. This immediately shot up to my favorite dish. I know we are not finished, but this was my favorite course of the Remy Dessert Experience. Emily said this was her #2 favorite, as she loves passionfruit. This was a truly delicious & unique dish.
After years of enjoying the foams at Remy, I finally decided to ask how they do it… Chef Patrick revealed that their magic wand (my corny words) is a Bamix hand-held food processor with a disc attachment. I’m trying to find a way to justify the purchase.
The fifth course, the Praline Vanilla. The dessert seems to be inspired by the Foie Gras Siphon with a macadamia nuts served during Remy dinner. It was another excellent dessert. They referred to it as vanilla soup. The chef toyed with us by telling us they were going to top the dish with parmesan cheese, but as they were grating it onto our desserts, Emily & I knew right away that it was white chocolate. The crunch of the macadamia nuts with the creaminess of the soup was lovely. We did tell Chef Patrick we’d love a Wine and Cheese experience.
The sixth and final course was the Chocolat Croquant accented with gold leaf.
This was a very rich and creamy chocolate lover’s dream dessert.
To finish the Remy Dessert Experience, we were all treated to a complimentary glass of Taittinger champagne. Emily’s face lit up, as she is a huge Taittinger fan. In fact, she was going to inquire if she could purchase a glass, so to have it served complementary, she was thrilled. As of this sailing, Taittinger runs $16/glass on the ships.
The dessert experience at Remy is $50 per person and includes one complimentary glass of champagne. The optional wine pairing experience can be added for $25 per person. As always, the Remy experience never ends without a care package. During the dessert party, we were both given two macarons.
I felt Chef Patrick did a wonderful job introducing each dessert and moving around to all the tables in the dinning room. It was also nice to see the Executive Pastry Chef come out for a curtain call at the end of the experience.
Coming into this experience and the other reason we skipped the wine pairing was the concern we be leaving with a sugar rush. I was pleased to find that the desserts were well balanced and not at all heavy or overly sweet. Did I/we make a mistake skipping the wine pairing? In general, we prefer dry wines so it may have put me into that sugar rush zone I wanted to avoid.
Overall, we enjoyed the Remy Dessert Experience, but both of us agreed that for us it may be one of those ‘one and done’ experiences even knowing there is built in repeatability as the dessert offerings continually change. When I first started writing this review of the dessert experience, I felt it would be better priced at $30. However, as I reflect on the dessert experience, I realized that the price of the Remy Dessert Experience is effectively $34 per person if you take in consideration the Taittinger is $16 a glass. Although, if you pass on the champagne, the experience is still $50.
By no means am I implying it was not a fun and delicious experience; I would just rather put the $50 per person towards the Champagne Bunch or Remy Dinner, both of which we really love and try to do at least one (or both!) of them when we sail on the Dream class ships.
I’d love to read your thoughts on the Remy Dessert Experience in the comments below, especially if you added the wine experience.
Great review Scott. I didn’t know too much about this particular experience. It does sound fun but I think we would prefer to visit Remy for dinner and have a mix of savory and sweet
This must be heaven for those with a sweet tooth!
Wow! It looks utterly decadent! I think it would be a neat to experience once, but I too would be worried about over doing it on the sweets. I am more of a dry wine fan too, but I think it would be kind of cool to see how the wines they chose would pair up with the deserts for a full experience. Thanks for sharing!
That’s cool.
“photos of Remy food never due it justice”( it is do it justice not due it justice).
due is for something owed like a bill or to meet a deadline.due on this day.the project has a due date of….
Thanks for pointing this out.
Thanks for the info … like you might try it as a ‘tick in the box’ thing, but having said that we have never done a Remy dinner. Is there any dress code for this experience ?
As a man of size, i assume you just get one of each? or do you think a wink and a nod may snag an extra of your favorite?
Collin,
It never hurts to ask, but I did not see anyone get seconds of any dish.
We enjoyed this experience on the Fantasy in March. We likely won’t repeat it on future sailings but it was definitely worth trying. The macadamia “soup” was so good!
I did this on my cruise in December. I really wanted to go to Remy, but felt weird going to dinner by myself, so I opted for the desserts instead. It was wonderful and relaxing. I had the round table in the corner all to myself. My desserts were completely different except the last one. My favorite was a lemon tart, but they were all amazing.
You do not receive the menu until AFTER you’ve finished all of the desserts. The chef also signs your menu. I did not bring my camera and wished I had since they do photos at the end of the experience.
Actually, if I remember correctly, do you receive your menu and they ask you not to look at it?
Not on this day.
Well, on this day we received the menu when we were seated and it was not signed.
We did the wine pairing. I am not the biggest fan of dessert wines, but each one complimented the dishes brilliantly, and we’re not as sweet as I envisioned them to be. Our desserts were slightly different to the ones you listed. We had a passion fruit, toasted coconut and lime foam to begin, red berries with a vanilla ice cream and berry compote, an Italian merengue type marshmallow with passion fruit dots, an orange gelato wrapped in a brandy snap and topped with orange foam, a chocolate soup and the Louis XIV chocolate finger.i loved every mouthful of every dessert – much like the brunch, I never wanted any dish to end! The serving team did a fantastic job (as always) and the Chef had a great personality, we spent quite some time afterwards chatting with the sommelier about the wines a little further.
We did this on the Dream and added the wine pairings. Our desserts differed from yours. Only the Louis XIV is the same, but the wine pairings were the same. The wines were a nice compliment to the desserts. I am typically not a fan of sweet wines but they were very balanced in taste. I love desserts and sweets in general and would definitely do this again, especially since it appears the menu changes slightly. The third wine was a favorite of everyone in my group, even those that don’t usually drink wine. It was really the best of the three, imo.
I am very tempted! A couple of questions if you wouldn’t mind answering? How long was it from start to finish? I might go by myself, and would like to let me husband know how long he can expect to be on child duty. And, is the dress code for this still dress/pants suit for women?
Naomi, It was about one hour. I would say child duty may be less than 90 minutes.
Scott,
Will this still be available for the Fantasy eastern itinerary during the Star Wars Day at Sea? (Thanks!)
It should be.
Scott, is this still available on the Dream/Fantasy and if so, do you know if it’s something that can be booked when booking window opens or does it have to be booked once onboard? thanks
David, it was listed on the Remy dinner enhancement menu as in, here is another experience to try at another time. I didn’t look to book it this last cruise, but the last time we did, we booked it online.