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France

A child of the Pont à Mousson and the son of a pastry chef, SÉBASTIEN GAUDARD draws on his Lorraine heritage. He revisits the classics that his father learned, reuses the moulds, reproduces the recipes he inherited and rummages around his family’s pâtissier archives. His Patisserie des Martyrs, which opened in 2011, updates traditional French recipes for modern tastes. With a Talent du Luxe from 2010, Sébastien didn’t forget his years of management at Fauchon or his experience at Délicabar du Bon Marché, created with the designer Claudio Colucci: his refined, contemporary style always includes a touch of elegance.

What role does cream play in your patisserie?
Sébastien Gaudard :

My dairy product supplier is more important than the one who supplies flour! Cream plays a very important role because it’s a vehicle for flavours, which makes it possible to develop tastes. It is texturising and is involved in perceiving the sensation of freshness. Cream doesn’t fix flavours in the same way that oil, water and butter do. Its melting point is more or less the same as the temperature of the mouth, so it is a fat that melts very quickly on the palate.

What preparations do you make with cream?
Sébastien Gaudard :

You can heat it, use it cooked in a custard or boil it for a pastry cream, on a traditional chocolate mousse, where I add cream to give a very pronounced sensation of freshness; I also use it as a Chantilly (light and silky, not too sugary, not too rich) incorporated into a mousse. You can make Chantillys with what you like (mint leaves, tarragon, or even salted, by having a base infused into a cream that has been boiled, covered with film, and then left overnight). Chantilly is a very interesting aromatic medium.

Cream doesn't fix flavours in the same way that oil, water and butter do.
What are its usages?
Sébastien Gaudard :

You can put it in everything. In a ganache, it is texturising, without giving the same result as milk. If you take a heavy cream, it’s for flavour. In a mousse recipe, it provides an extremely pleasing tart element. In a pastry, cream adds richness and unctuousity where butter adds flavour and texture. Before, I made fruit mousses with egg whites. Today, I use cream for its freshness.

Which of your creations best celebrates cream?
Sébastien Gaudard :

The Saint-Honoré and everything that is Chantilly-based like profiteroles, and the originals: those with pastry cream.

Would you say that you love cream, love it passionately or love it madly?
Sébastien Gaudard :

Passionately. It’s really a very beautiful product. With flour and eggs, it constitutes a very important ingredient, the medium for all of our pastries.

What is your signature cake with cream?
Sébastien Gaudard :

Caramelised cream puffs. With a choux (puff) dough that is not dry, it’s a veritable osmosis between cream and the caramel texture, the unctuosity, the melting of the cream and the vanilla flavour that develops between the time of preparation and consumption.

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PÂTISSERIE DES MARTYRS

Paris 9e