Delicate, sculptural, truly delectable macarons. You would expect no less from a fourth-generation pastry chef whose family hails from Lyons, the French capital of gastronomy. After Nadège Nourian established her first café-bakery in 2009, on Toronto’s Queen Street West, she was inspired to develop a project that would involve artists in various fields. She and business partner Morgan McHugh gave six creatives a blank slate to reimagine a box to hold 16 macarons. The limited edition packaging displays imagery from cartoons to a trompe l’oeil; each box also includes a favourite flavour chosen by the featured artist. With the exception of Los Angeles footwear designer Jerome C. Rousseau, all of the collaborators are local.
A watercolour of orange blossoms by textile artist Virginia Johnson embellishes the first box, launched in August. Custom wallpaper company Rollout designed a package based on its popular Worth wallpaper, with a repeat of X‑rayed human skulls. A white-on-white box by photographer Steve Krug and creative director Jennifer Weaymouth, released in September, is a seamless 360-degree design. Their solution was to create a surrealistic tea party populated by various creatures, with a band of pink tying it all together. Krug says they chose a vibrant accent hue to pay homage to the pastries: “They are so colour saturated and explosive in flavour, we wanted to hint at what’s inside.”
$38 a box