Today, he can whip up cakes and pastries which not only taste good but also look magnificent.
Representing the French Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Christian visited various cities across the country to promote French pastries.
When in India, the chef decided to create pastries inspired by his surroundings.
“Making pastries is an art in itself. The recipes are all there but it’s about how well you use your imagination and technique to improvise them. For me, India is all about riches and exotic flavours. So I went right ahead and used a lot of exotic fruits and gold papers on the desserts to improvise on them,” says Christian.
Ask him what makes a French pastry different from others and he says, “The preparation of French pastries and desserts is based on classic French techniques. This can be divided into pastry dough, yeast dough, sponge biscuits, creams, mousse to name a few. Le Cordon Bleu training is based on these techniques. Once acquired, they can be used in indefinite combinations to create elegant pastries and desserts.”
For this French man, a perfect pastry is the one that brings back childhood memories.
“At this point, pastries must go beyond ingredients and techniques because after a good meal, what a person eats is a dessert and you want it to be the best. What is better than that pastry which brings back those happy childhood memories?” he asks.
Interestingly, Christian also teaches young aspiring pastry chefs. It’s a profession which he loves and considers as a constant learning process.
“It’s exciting to teach new apprentices because they approach the pastry with such fresh ideas and are ready to think out of the box. Sometimes, they surprise me by making something out of this world and use combinations of flavours that I wouldn’t have thought of. That’s the nice part of being involved with pastries because in this world, there’s never a moment of boredom,” he signs off.