- Crookies started out as ‘just something for regulars’, says the Parisian baker who created them, but a viral TikTok video sent sales soaring
French pastry chef Stephane Louvard poses with his “crookies”, traditional French croissants mixed with cookie dough. Photo: AFP1 Over the past year, a Paris bakery owner has seen many young people come to his shop. They are eager to take a photo of themselves with the latest pastry trend: the crookie.
2 A croissant filled with cookie dough might sound unhealthy. But everyone knows it will be tasty – even if they have only seen it in a video online.
3 The crookie was invented by pastry chef Stephane Louvard in 2022. It was “just something for regulars”, he said, until a video increased sales by 150 to 200 per day. The video was created by the Instagram account “The Ultimate Guide”, which posts about Paris restaurants.
4 Then, in early 2023, TikTok influencer Johan Papz filmed himself taking an enjoyable bite of one 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 as workers rushed to spread cookie dough into croissants.
5 In the following weeks, the queue for the bakery never seemed to shrink. They make between 1,000 and 1,600 crookies per day, and Louvard has had to hire two extra workers.
6 He is pleased, but a little confused, about the craze. “I mean, it’s a bit insane. At some point, you have to stop. It’s just some cookie in a croissant,” he said, adding that he didn’t think it was a life-changing invention.
7 Thanks to TikTok, people around the world are copying Maison Louvard. Crookies have been seen in Brussels, New York, Tel Aviv and Singapore. However, Louvard does not want to file a patent, which would give only him the right to make the crookie. “What for? To find myself in court with half the planet?” he said.
8 It is not the first pastry craze to excite the world’s taste buds. In 2013, New Yorkers slept on the pavement outside Dominique Ansel’s bakery after he invented the cronut – half-croissant, half-doughnut.
9 In 2022, the New York Roll, a mixture of croissant and bombolone (an Italian pastry) gained a lot of attention. Videos featuring the treat earned hundreds of millions of views on TikTok. This began a hunt for more baked trends.
Questions
1. What did Johan Papz take a video of himself doing in paragraph 4?
2. How many crookies does Louvard make every day, according to paragraph 5?
A. about 500
B. less than 2,000
C. slightly more than 2,500
D. as many as 5,000
3. Which word can replace “pleased” in paragraph 6?
A. happy
B. confused
C. worried
D. calm
4. Using details from the story, match the food items to their description. (3 marks)
A. crookie (i) a cross between a croissant and a bombolone
B. cronut (ii) a croissant stuffed with cookie dough
C. New York Roll (iii) a mix between a croissant and a doughnut
5. Which of the sentences below is a complete sentence?
A. Delicious, crunchy crookie.
B. Is tasty crookies.
C. Because it is called a crookie.
D. Crookies are tasty.
6. Circle the correct verb forms for each sentence below. (3 marks)
(i) Louvard had to (hire/hiring) two more workers because of the popularity of his crookies.
(ii) Thanks to TikTok, Maison Louvard now (has/have) a number of copycats all over the world.
(iii) These days, people can (buy/bought) crookies in Brussels, New York, Tel Aviv and Singapore.
Answers
1. A
2. lured
3. (i) T; (ii) NG; (iii) NG; (iv) F
4. They did so because criminals conned residents out of more than HK$136 million through
various internet frauds in the space of a week.
5. D
6. 27,923