Until a real Mendl’s bakery opens, the closest you can get to the towering pastries that steal the show in The Grand Budapest Hotel is making them for yourself. Shot with the same distinctly Wes Anderson aesthetic as the movie, this YouTube video from Fox Searchlight demonstrates how to bake the “legendary” courtesan au chocolat pastries M. Gustave loves so much. It’s a basic dough filled with creme and then decorated recipe, and like a lot of baking, it’s a finicky process that requires some patience. But the results look beautiful and so totally delicious.
Because you eat with your eyes first, here’s a YouTube video on how to (sort of) make the box, though in the less-charming real world we live in, you probably shouldn’t snap the box open like Anderson’s characters do in the world of the Grand Budapest Hotel.