The Dessert Course

Happenstance (i.e.- a web search on "Rambouillet+Marie+Antoinette") led me to the most charming online retailer called The Dessert Course. The site focuses strictly on those items used for setting a proper dessert table, including sweetmeats, tea services, punch bowls, pôts de cremes, and copper molds (not necessarily for the dessert table, but important for making those bombes and baba au rhums). The merchandise is interspersed with dessert and cooking related quotes from Balzac, Proust, and Diderot as well as brief histories of these dessert accoutrements.

As I just stumbled upon this site, I can't vouch for the customer service. However, I always find it exciting to see retail shops that have such a narrow focus- it's usually an indication that the owner is quite passionate about what he is selling. And if you think that it seems silly to own items that some might find extraneous, guess again. In the words of Antonin Carême, one of history's greatest chefs, "I believe architecture to be the first amongst the arts... and the principal branch of architecture is confectionary."


Marie Antoinette footed bowl- a reproduction of the piece famously molded from the Queen's breast.


Green Dragon Punch Bowl, which I think has a multitude of uses


Pot de Crèmes by Mottahedeh


Rambouillet Dairy Service Etruscan Cup


Glass cake stands and a sweetmeat topper


Copper pudding molds by Ruffoni

Image at top: John Nash's engraving of the kitchen at Brighton Pavilion