How a restaurant brought the Olympic Village's viral muffins to NYC – and back for the Paralympics

Posted by enzo2go September 1, 2024

Like many culture-defining trends, it began on TikTok.

Posts by Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen, now widely generally known as the “Muffin Man,” showcased the chocolate muffins served within the Olympic Village in the course of the Summer Games. Christiansen’s posts expressing his adoration for the chocolatey muffins drew Millions of views when he took part within the Olympic Games in Paris and led to quite a few duplicate muffin recipes (including one in The New York Times).

But a fan of Christiansen's posts living in New York City was not satisfied with a mere reproduction.

Instead, Kelin Carolyn Zhang, a 32-year-old independent designer, wondered if she could try the actual thing. There was an initial hurdle, nevertheless, because the supplier of the famous Olympia chocolate muffins, Coup de Pates, only fulfills wholesale orders resembling those from restaurants and businesses, slightly than on to the tip consumer, she said. While attempting to get the authentic muffins, Zhang documented her research and her quest to bring them to the U.S. on TikTokwhich led to a connection within the restaurant industry that helped make her dream come true.

“The whole situation kept escalating and I found it incredibly funny, so I kept going,” Zhang said.

The “extremely haphazard rabbit hole” of muffin research, as she described it, eventually resulted in a shipment of 15 boxes of 300 chocolate muffins – presumably the identical ones served to athletes on the Olympics. and Paralympicsalthough Coup de Pates didn’t reply to requests for comment on the matter. The muffins were transported overnight on dry ice by air freight from Paris Orly Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Zhang said. The shipment required FDA approval, and the muffins needed to undergo customs before being transported by delivery truck to the New York cafe Ishiki Matcha within the East Village, where the primary pop-up event took place on August seventeenth.

When the event was announced, There was local excitement. The first customer lined up outside the cafe at 6 a.m. — the event began 4 hours later. The line went across the block twice, and the muffins — limited to 1 per customer for $10 — sold out in about two hours, in accordance with Isshiki Matcha owner Angel Zheng, who said her friends who arrived late didn't get one.

Zheng became involved after a friend tagged her in one in all Zhang's TikTok posts and suggested that the 2 women work together to bring the muffins to New York City.

“I just really like side quests,” Zheng said. “I like doing things for the plot. I'm very young – I'm 24. I'm not a big corporation. I don't have a boss with a 20-person chain of command. I open restaurants and that brings so much joy to people. So I thought if it works, it works. And if it doesn't, at least we tried.”

Organizing the event was no small feat, as the method involved many logistical hurdles that Zhang detailed told on XCoup de Pates had never exported to New York before, so there was no system in place to get the products from the plane to the restaurant like Zheng was used to with other suppliers, which meant she and Zhang needed to coordinate ground transportation. Zheng also said she bought a brand new refrigerator for the restaurant that was sufficiently big to suit all of the muffins in, and the associated fee of customs and transportation was expensive, but she was “happy to do it.”

And it wasn't an isolated incident. Isshiki Matcha announced a second pop-up event starting at 10 a.m. Saturday while the Paralympics are underway. This time, they placed a bigger order — 1,000 muffins, which Zhang said they may sell until supplies run out.

Zhang said she expects a smaller turnout this time since the announcement was made just before closing time and potential customers could also be out of town over the vacation weekend.

But Zhang said she was capable of try a second muffin due to the newest delivery. Despite all of the coordination of the primary event, she only tried one because of demand.

“Can you believe this?” she said.

According to Zhang and Zheng, the hype in regards to the muffins is justified. And yes, Zhang confirmsthey're chocolate cakes. Zheng said she thought it was the most effective muffin she'd ever tasted, joining a chorus of positive reviews of the treats, a lot of which have been shared on TikTok, including by American Olympians Gabby Thomas, Tara Davis Woodhall, Abbey Weitzeil and Torri Huske. There could also be more reviews in the course of the Paralympics, because the Paralympic Games X account looked as if it would indicate that the muffins were available to participants.

The pastry's popularity has spread beyond the athletes' village, and due to Zhang and Zheng, the muffins have reached a brand new group of critics on one other continent.

“I think the magic of these muffins is that no one except Olympic athletes could get their hands on them,” Zheng said. “I don't think it's about baking chocolate muffins.”

Zheng added that what she learned from this enterprise is that “with the power of the internet, anything is possible.”

Zhang, who has a background in digital product design, said she had never worked with a restaurant or cafe before her muffin quest and that “hopefully this whole story can inspire other people to take matters into their own hands.”

“The (first) muffin pop-up itself was so hearty,” she said. “People had fun in line. I'm really proud of that — just helping people have a good time and come together.”

She said she was not aware of any plans for a 3rd pop-up and had highlighted corresponding events.

“I think it's very special to have it just around the Olympics and Paralympics,” she said. “And that adds to the overall excitement.”

Regardless, Zhang's quest had a satisfying end. She and Zheng – together with those so dedicated to their shared muffin goal that they waited out the lines – finally ate like Olympians.



image credit : www.nytimes.com

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