A petit gâteau (lit. 'small cake'; plural: petits gâteaux) is a French chocolate dessert. In French-speaking countries a dessert of a petit gâteau with chocolate is referred to as fondant. In the United States, a dessert by the name petit gâteau has been popularized by some New York City restaurants since the 1990s. It is composed of a small chocolate cake with crunchy rind and creamy filling that is conventionally served hot with vanilla ice cream on the side. Variations have come to include fruits and even alcoholic beverages, such as whisky.

Origin

The chef Olivier Anquier once said that nobody knows how it came about. Although some stories say that the petit gâteau was born in France, there are those who say that it was created by chance by the French chef based in New York, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, when he made a mistake with the amount of flour. Another version says that this chocolate cookie with a crunchy shell and creamy filling was created in the United States when an apprentice chef overheated the oven. Customers loved it and it became popular in the 1990s, arriving in Brazil around 1996. Others say it was created by French chef Michel Bras in a small, hidden restaurant in France and adapted and brought to Brazil by chef Érick Jacquin, a Frenchman who settled in São Paulo.