Ina Garten Says This Is the 'Only Dessert to Order in Paris'

Ina Garten never lets us down when it comes to what to order for dessert — or what to do in general. So when the chef, author, and TV show host posted a reel on Instagram in late July about the “only dessert to order in Paris,” we took her advice to heart.

The video includes no other details in the caption, but for anyone in the know about classic French pastries the stunning dessert might be immediately familiar; and in case it isn’t, Garten clarified in the comments that the reel depicts a plate of profiteroles, or “Cream puffs filled with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with warm chocolate sauce. Heaven!”

While Ina didn’t specify where she enjoyed the dish, one commenter suggested that it might be La Coupole, a brasserie that lists “profiteroles with warm Valrhona chocolate” on its dessert menu. The Barefoot Contessa was most recently in Paris as a special contributor with the Today Show at the 2024 Olympics, but she’s no stranger to the City of Light.

Ina Garten and her husband Jeffrey have had an apartment in Paris for 25 years, and in 2022 she shared some of her favorite food spots in the city on Instagram, upon returning after 2.5 years of minimal travel due to the pandemic. She’s also a fan of French ingredients when cooking at home, citing Rodolphe Le Meunier’s beurre de baratte, produced with traditional methods in Normandy and molded by hand, as the luxurious butter she enjoys almost every morning on toast. Suffice it to say, Ina Garten knows her French food.

For those of us without Ina’s expertise, profiteroles might not be super recognizable — they’re certainly less ubiquitous in the United States than the croissant in all its forms. The origin of profiteroles is a bit murky, and inevitably tied to the invention of the choux pastry that they’re made from. One legend claims that an Italian chef brought choux to France in the 16th century when he arrived with Catherine de Medici, but in reality it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where this light and airy dough was first created.

Chef Marie-Antoine Carême is often credited with perfecting and popularizing the light and airy recipe for choux pastry — or pâte à choux — dough in the 19th century. The influential chef is also believed to be the first to fill the hollow pastries with custard or cream, and thus the modern profiterole was born.

Whether you call it a cream puff or a profiterole, these sweet treats have been adapted by local food cultures all over the world. Dutch boscche bollen are extra large profiteroles filled with whipped cream and covered all over in a chocolate glaze. In Hawaii, locals and visitors alike know to stop by Liliha Bakery for some coco puffs, chocolate cream-filled choux buns topped with a thick frosting.

The airy pastries are also popular in Japan, where they’re even sold in convenience stores like 7-Eleven. Bakery chain Beard Papa’s opened its first location in Osaka in 1999, but now sells its famous cream puffs in 15 countries and territories. 

If you’re craving a plate of profiteroles that look as beautiful as Ina Garten’s, it’s easy to dress up some premade cream puffs so they feel a little fancy. Grab a pack from stores like Costco, Wegmans, or Whole Foods, then serve with a drizzle of store-bought or homemade chocolate sauce, and add a scoop of ice cream if desired. They might not be quite as good as the pastries Ina has access to, but they’ll come close enough to tide you over until you can book a flight to Paris. And if you’re on the hunt for a weekend baking project, then we have a few profiterole and cream puff recipes that might fit the bill: