Always very popular (it was served, for example, during the historic summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in 2018), the Tropezienne is derived from a Polish family recipe that Alexandre Micka imported to France in 1952. It owes its name to the most famous of French seaside resorts and is constantly gaining new fans.
The brioche cake sprinkled with large grains of sugar and its mixture of custard and butter creams was born in St Tropez: in 1952 a young Polish pastry chef opened a bakery (which still exists) and took advantage of the shooting of Roger Vadim's film "And God created the woman” to introduce it to the whole crew.
They were seduced, especially Brigitte Bardot who suggested that he call his gourmet creation "Saint-Tropez pie".
He preferred the name "tropezian pie" and immediately registered a patent for the device that allows the cutting, horizontally and in 2 equal parts, of this brioche with the famous creamy topping in its center.
Since then, its success has spread far beyond the Côte d'Azur region, thanks in particular to a billionaire who, in 1975, joined forces with Alexandre Micka to create a jelly version of the pie that is then distributed throughout Europe. The development of its creation continued 10 years later with the entrepreneur Albert Dufrêne: in a 2,000m2 laboratory in Cogolin (between Saint-Tropez and Sainte-Maxime), they produced the only "authentic" Tropezian pies.
Because yes, the price of fame, counterfeits were multiplying despite the original recipe was only known by the inspired Pole. Today it is still known to only 3 people: in order to handover, Alexandre Micka ended up writing it on a cardboard circle preciously kept in a safe belonging to Albert Dufrêne's family. With his children, he now manages 19 dedicated stores and a commercial site that allows you to have the tasty pie delivered anywhere in France.
To order one, click here.
Valérie from Comme des Français
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Continue your gourmet reading with these other regional specialties:
- The calissons of Aix
- The canelé of Bordeaux
- Far Breton
