Monday 16/Oct/2023 at 07:00 – Updated at 07:00 Company
How is the profession of pastry chef conceived when one practices it in a place of power?
When you work in a place like the Hôtel de Matignon, you have to know how to adapt to certain requirements. We cannot act as if we were in our own restaurant or in our own pastry shop and say: “I do it this way and not otherwise”. That said, I believe that the profession of pastry chef is first and foremost a matter of passion. Whether you do it in a neighborhood store or in a place of power, it’s the same thing: you have to try to give the best of yourself. That’s what I’m trying to do.
You are very interested in the arts, you followed training at the Louvre school. In pastry, is aesthetics as important as taste?
Taste is of course the most important thing. If you make beautiful plates but they are returned to you full, it’s because you failed the exercise. When you are a pastry chef, the first thing is to form a taste and be faithful to it. The search for a visual identity comes next. If I went to the Louvre school, it was to discover the basic techniques of all artistic professions (sculpture, tapestry, goldsmithing, etc.) with the idea of using them in pastry making. What I discovered that was fascinating was that all forms of creation come together and complement each other.
You have been at Matignon for 17 years, what are the most exciting moments you have experienced?
I have very good memories of the visit of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg in 2008. It was a reception with great pomp and I proposed something unique and atypical: a large sugar sphere which broke and inside which were the desserts. I was very stressed but it worked out well. All the guests were amazed. Generally speaking, I can say that Prime Ministers are generally benevolent. Even when they aren’t too keen on dessert, they always make the effort to eat what is served to them.
With prices increasing by 14% on the shelves, chocolate has become a luxury product. Is this something you take into account in your work?
We have budgets to keep and we are very careful with our spending. Even if pastry is not the most expensive culinary art, the price of raw materials has an effect on the way we work. Less in terms of chocolate than in certain decorative elements, like gold leaf, which we stopped using.
Through popular shows, such as “The Best Pastry Chef”, your profession is very visible today. How do you look at this?
This is very good as it helps raise awareness of pastry. The risk, however, is to convey a slightly too idyllic image of the profession. We must not make people lose sight of the fact that it is a very complex profession which requires an enormous individual investment.
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