The Crookie: the French pastry craze that took over TikTok.
Paris (AFP) - A bemused Paris bakery owner has been besieged by smartphone-wieldingyoungsters over the past year, keen to snap themselves with the latest pastry craze: thecrookie.
A croissant filled with cookie dough might sound like a fistful of heart attack, but everyoneknows it's going to be tasty, even when all they've seen is a viral TikTok video.
The crookie was invented by Parisian pastry chef Stephane Louvard in 2022.
It was "just something for regulars", he said, until a video by Instagram account "The UltimateGuide", which specialises in Paris restaurants, drove sales up to 150-200 per day.
Then in early 2023, TikTok influencer Johan Papz filmed himself taking a satisfying bite intoone of Louvard's crookies, and things went crazy.
"We had hundreds of people coming, most of them young women between 18- and 25-years-old, smartphones in hand to take photos with them," Louvard told AFP in his kitchen asworkers rushed to spread cookie dough into croissants.
In the weeks that followed, the queue never seemed to diminish in front of the bakery.Production is now between 1,000 and 1,600 crookies per day and Louvard has had to hiretwo extra workers.
Thanks to TikTok, Maison Louvard now has imitators around the world, with crookiesspotted in Brussels, New York, Tel Aviv and Singapore.
Louvard has no interest in filing a patent, however.
"What for? To find myself in court with half the planet?" he said.
pastry : pâtisserie
craze : mode
took over : envahir (to take)
bemused : amusé
bakery : boulangerie
owner : propriétaire
besieged : assiégé
smartphone-wielding : qui brandissent leur smartphone
youngsters : jeunes
keen : désireux
snap : prendre (en photo)
latest : (le) plus récent
filled : rempli
dough : pâte
might : pouvoir
sound : sonner
fistful : poignée
heart attack : crise cardiaque
knows : savoir
tasty : savoureux
seen : voir (to see)
viral : qui se répand très vite sur internet
regulars : habitués
said : dire (to say)
until : jusqu'à ce que
account : compte
drove : to drive up : faire augmenter
sales : ventes
early : début
bite : to take a bite of : mordre dans
things : choses
went : devenir (to go)
crazy : fou
hundreds : des centaines
coming : venir
most : la plupart
young : jeune
between : entre
told : dire à (to tell)
rushed : se précipiter
spread : étaler
followed : suivre
never : jamais
seemed : sembler
between : entre
hire : embaucher
extra : supplémentaire
Thanks : grâce
around : à travers
spotted : repéré
filing : déposer
patent : brevet
however : cependant
find : trouver
court : tribunal
half : la moitié de
said : dire (to say)