la.foodblogging

USA Today’s Money section published a feature story today on the cream puff craze.

Writer Bruce Horovitz notes that not only is Beard Papa’s Sweets Cafe Hollywood-bound, as la.foodblogging first reported earlier this month, but so is Choux Factory, its Asian competitor.

“We all talk a good game, but less than 2% of us are actually eating what the Food Pyramid tells us to,” says Tanya Wenman Steel, a New York editor at Bon Appetite. Watch out, Krispy Kreme, she says, “cream puffs will be the next big thing.”

I went to scout out the new Beard Papa’s location at Hollywood & Highland last week and it is still very much under construction.

Each (Beard Papa’s cream puff) oozes about 230 calories — about 30 calories more than a Krispy Kreme glazed donut. But unlike donuts, the cream puffs are baked, not fried. The filling is a whipped-cream-and-custard combo. The company, already a success in Japan, plans to open another 20 U.S. units domestically during the next year — including in Hollywood and San Francisco.

Photo IMG_0131 Originally uploaded by gabebc.