Albert Adrià's Cakes & Bubbles to celebrate opening with free cheesecake and champagne

New venture: Albert Adrià is one of the world’s top pastry chefs
Alex Lentati

One of the world’s best pastry chefs is coming to London to open what could be the dream venue for cake lovers — a restaurant serving chocolate éclairs weighing only 12g.

Albert Adrià made his name alongside brother Ferran at the Michelin three-star El Bulli before launching a string of top restaurants in Barcelona.

The 49-year-old has returned to his sweet-toothed roots with Cakes & Bubbles at the Hotel Cafe Royal, Regent Street — his first venture outside Spain. Waist-watchers can indulge guilt-free as the cakes contain less added sugar than usual, and no colorants, frostings or glitter.

Instead fruit such as mangos, pomelos, mandarins, papayas and pineapples have been sourced from local markets to add sweetness.

The menu includes a chocolate and peanut éclair weighing 12g — as light as three sugarcubes. By comparison, a standard Greggs cream chocolate eclair tips the scales at 86g. The chef will also serve a 3g carrot cake meringue. Mr Adrià said: “You’re not going to find anywhere in the world like this, so London and Hotel Cafe Royal was the perfect venue — a gift.

“I’m nearly 50 and if I do something now it has to be from the heart… Cakes & Bubbles is all three. I have been working 33 years towards such a project. I’m proud to put my name to it.”

The best chocolate desserts in London

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Asked what makes the perfect cake, Mr Adrià said: “You eat it and then you cannot wait to have another one. Eating dessert doesn’t have a nutritional function. But it feeds the soul in a hedonistic way.” Mr Adrià, voted the world’s best pastry chef in 2015, works in a team of seven with each dessert taking three hours to create in batches of 150.

“The desserts look very serious. It might remind you of something you’ve always eaten but when it comes to flavouring, it is completely new,” he said.

Mr Adrià will mark the opening of Cakes & Bubbles on Thursday by giving away slices of cheesecake and glasses of champagne. One lucky customer will win a trip to Barcelona with dinner for two at his restaurant Tickets.

68 Regent Street, W1B 4DY, hotelcaferoyal.com

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