Noor Safi · Pastry

Atelier Noor

An exhibition of work in sugar, butter and time. Five pieces hang below; each one was made to be eaten, which is the point of the whole show.

A glossy swirled chocolate entremet on a white marble pedestal beside a single blush rose — Number 01, — Entremet, autumn
Dark chocolate and fig — the glaze poured twice, the second time for the light

A three-tier blush and ivory wedding cake with cascades of sugar roses, photographed in a white gallery room — Number 02, — Wedding piece, blush
Three tiers; every rose wired, petal by petal, by hand

A cream quenelle with a gold-leafed chocolate shard, plated beside pink roses and scattered petals — Number 03, — Plated, rose & gold
Composed for a private dining room of twelve — eaten in under four minutes

I make a small number of pieces, slowly, for people who want the centre of the table to mean something.

Cross-section of a croissant showing an open spiral of laminated layers, lit by a window — Number 04, — Lamination, in section
Eighty-one layers, read like tree rings

Noor’s hands piping rings of pale crème onto baked choux circles on a parchment-lined tray — Number 05, — Choux, in progress
Crème mousseline — the atelier at ten to nine in the morning

Noor Safi

I trained in restaurant pastry sections and left because the work I loved most was the piece made for one table, one day, one reason. The atelier is where that work happens now — commissions in the front of the calendar, workshops in the quiet weeks between.

Everything shown here was made in this room, photographed before it left, and eaten by the people it was made for.

Commission a piece →Or take a seat at a workshop

Noor Safi in pastry whites, standing in her atelier as a drift of flour catches the light — The artist, mid-morning — flour still in the air.