Who doesn't love an epic pastry and when you're in NYC, James Beard winner Chef Dominique Ansel is known for making pastry moments with being the creator of the Cronut, Cookie Shots, DKA, and Frozen S'mores to name a few at Dominique Ansel Bakery. You can also continue to enjoy his artistry at Dominique Ansel Workshop, Dominique Ansel Las Vegas in Caesars Palace and Dominique Ansel Marché in Paris Vegas. He is known for creating magical moments in each bite.
We had the pleasure of attending an editor's event to see him make memorable breakfast bites in partnership with Honey Bunches of Oats Chocolate Cereal that was perfectly decadent as we navigate the Winter season. We also sat down with him to talk about how he came to the world of pastry, his creative process, and more!
ATHLEISURE MAG: We’ve wanted to chat with you for a number of years for Athleisure Mag so it was such a pleasure to taste your treats and creations at today’s event! I’m sure my trainer is not going to like it ha!
CHEF DOMINIQUE ANSEL: Ha, don’t blame it on me!
AM: I’m not going to blame it on you! I was the person who ate everything haha!
When did you first fall in love with pastry and when did you realize that you wanted to be a pastry chef?
CHEF DA: That’s a good question. I was not expecting this question. So, you know, when I left school I was barely 16. My parents couldn't afford – I lived in a project, my parents couldn't afford to send me to school. So, early on, I decided to get a job to help the family, like to provide for food. So I didn't know what I really want to do. My mom was a terrible cook. She was so bad and my grandma was good. My mom was horrible and oftentimes like, I will end up in the kitchen trying to save dinner. I'll try to put something together so you can eat something not fancy at all, but just edible!
AM: Right!
CHEF DA: When I was that age, I was like, maybe I'll work in the kitchen. Maybe I'll be a chef. I'll try. And I found like a school that was free that welcomed me and I was doing an apprenticeship. So I would work in a restaurant for 3 weeks and go to school for a week, every month, it will be like this. So at first, I was a chef, a savory chef for 2 years. And you know, I love cooking. I love it today as much as I love baking. I don't do it as much, but I do baking for a living. When I was cooking, I would often do the desserts. So that was the only time where I'd pull a recipe, I'd read the recipe, and make this pastry. I remember it was like a Walnut Cake, very simple but really good. I would make this Walnut Cake and every time I'd make it, it was coming out perfect because I'm scaling and measuring everything.
AM: Right, yeah.
CHEF DA: I love that! I love the science behind it. I love the precision, I love the details and I love the fact that, you know, you could be creative with pastry. You can take like, raw ingredients, like sugar, flour, butter, and build that beautiful showpiece like chocolate. You can’t do this with cooking. Cooking is more intuitive. Cooking is more intimate and it’s about knowing the ingredients.
AM: Yeah.
CHEF DA: It’s about how to season them like if they are ripe or not.
AM: Yeah.
CHEF DA: It's a lot different. It’s different skills but I fell in love with baking then and I was like I'm gonna do a 3rd year of the apprenticeship. I'm gonna do it with baking so I did that and you know, I've been baking since then. It's been like 30 years.
AM: I mean that's so fantastic. And to learn that your initial culinary training was in a free program like that's that's amazing.
So how did you make that jump to being at Daniel which is amazing.
CHEF DA: So while I was in France, after my apprenticeship and completing my military service, I bought a small car and I drove to Paris because my boss at the time, talked about Paris every day. I was like, I need to go there. I'm gonna go to the capital. I need to work with the best and I eventually found a job there which led me to another job, and I eventually got the job at Fauchon (Editor’s Note: Fauchon is a legendary French Pastry shop), which was the leader in terms of products imported from all over the world, from spices, oils, like anything you name it – fruits and vegetables, like anything that they all came in that was exotic from all over the world. The pastry department was huge. It was a time where it was growing very fast and I was a hired as one of the pastry cooks there.
I worked there for 8 years. I was supposed to stay for 4 months. I stayed there for 8 years.
AM: Wow.
CHEF DA: In 2006, Daniel Boulud was looking for a pastry chef, so he called me, I was in Paris at the time and I was in charge of the International Development of the brand. So I was traveling a lot and he asked me if I wanted to come to New York to, you know, for the Pastry Chef job. I really didn't want to go back to a restaurant but it took me half a second to say okay, let's try.
I came to Daniel here in New York in 2006 with two suitcases. I folded everything back in France. I left everything. And I came with 2 suitcases, slept on a couch for like, 3 months – I didn’t have time to buy a bed!
AM: Right.
CHEF DA: I worked at Daniel for 6 years as the Executive Pastry Chef there and it was amazing years. Of course, in 2011, I decided to jump on my own and to take the next step and start my business.
AM: Why did you want to do that?
CHEF DA: Why? I always knew. I knew from when I was young that I want to be an entrepreneur, I want to own my own business. I want to do my own thing. I like the challenge of multitasking and wearing different hats. I like the challenge of making beautiful food but also like the business side. Having the interaction with the guests and knowing how to express yourself. It's all these like, things combined together, makes it very exciting to me.
AM: I mean, you have created some amazing pastry moments. I mean, the Cronut, which, I remember going in many times trying to get one and it was gone. I was just like argh foiled again!
CHEF DA: Haha I’m sorry!
AM: Then your Cookie Shot comes out and it’s another craze around that.
What does it mean to you that you've created like these little niches that are always going to be etched like you know, in the culinary world.
CHED DA: You know, it's overwhelmingly humbling. When I look back sometimes I'm like, I don't realize how much of an impact I left within the pastry world. I'm still walking around and I don't take it for granted. One of the best moments for me was When I was in Japan, we had a shop there. We were selling the Frozen S’mores which is our small version of the ice cream version of a s’mores.
AM: Yep.
CHEF DA: We were selling up to a 1,000 a day.
AM: Wow!
CHEF DA: 1000 a day! We couldn't keep up like we were making them and we were always selling. I stepped back for a second. I was like, this is amazing. I grew up in France. I learned my job in France. I came to America in 2006, barely knowing what a s’mores was.
AM: Yeah.
CHEF DA: Or what the tradition, or the meaning of it was.
AM: Yeah.
CHEF DA: Like I loved it so much that I embraced the culture, the American culture, the fact that people were coming together around the campfire, and friends, and family, and sharing this moment in time, where something as simple as the s’mores had so much signification for people and meaning of like getting together.
I took this as let's do something fun with it. Let's do something different. So of course we're having ice cream. that is surrounded by the honey marshmallow and chocolate wafer with crispy wafer and a little sea salt and we torch it in front of people. And that was really enjoyed by the Japanese people. People were mind blown and they were like, what is this? It’s portable. It's small. It's torched and finished in front of you. It's chewy. It's like crunchy. It's like not too sweet. It's like it's so much fun. It's ice cream inside. They love, love loved this so much that s’mores became a trend in Japan right after we opened our shop there. I took a step back I'm like, “my God. I'm a French man who lived in France, came to America when I was in my late 20s, and I managed to bring something so cultural from our country to another.” I feel very fortunate to have a chance to express myself through that and to cross cultures together and it's, it's amazing. It's a once in a lifetime.
AM: Oh 100% I mean, s'mores are serious business! I'm from the Midwest and we are serious about our s'mores and our bourbon –
CHEF DA: And bourbon!
AM: And Bourbon for those that want that adult version!
So how did this partnership come up with you and the Honey Bunches of Oats and Chocolate? That is just so fun to see and to taste that pairing today!
CHEF DA: Well, you know, they reached out asking me if we want to do something together and I think that is a natural connection and extension. It's a natural extension of what we do.
AM: Yeah.
CHEF DA: It's sweets, pastry, it's, you know, breakfasty.
AM: Yep.
CHEF DA: It's just a natural connection and creating something new and fun with Honey Bunches of Oats and especially launching thei chocolate flavor. I mean, it's like exciting for me and something fun that we did together.
AM: I mean, the French Fries. I love that. I mean, I love potatoes.
CHEF DA: I mean, isn’t it every kids dream for breakfast?
AM: I could definitely enjoy having this.
Will you do anything else with them?
CHEF DA: We're just doing this event today. We're not playing to do anything else - yet.
AM: Your latest cookbook is Everyone Can Bake. Why did you want to do that?
CHEF DA: You know, I've always been like working in the best kitchens, the most intense kitchen with the most professional chefs and they are strict, rigorous, and organized. Since opening the bakery, people have been coming in and they have the love of baking. They are bakers without being professionals. I think, you know that the bakery has done so much. I always compare my time to when I was at Daniel, but we see people coming to the kitchen and be so amazed, or mind blown by the kitchen, the lights and the people, and they were saving in many cases a lifetime of their savings to come to Daniel for that meal at that restaurant and I wanted to give similar experience with my bakery through the food through the welcoming of people to experience different types of food. So, throughout the years we've welcomed like, you know, hundreds of thousands of millions of people passing through the door with food and I see so many people like bring me treats. Baking their own stuff. Running to me sometimes and I’m like, hmm should I eat it haha?
AM: That’s pretty ballsy for people to bring you their treats because you’re amazing!
CHEF DA: I always wanted to get close to you know, everyone not just to the elite of people I’ve served over the years, but to everyone and I wanted those recipes to connect with people. So I want to do a book that is humble and about home baking. I actually practiced a lot of recipes with my son at home. They're simple, their easy, and quick. It's not too intense, not too difficult. Baking can sometimes be scary for people because you're precise, you’re scaling everything, but there are ways you can do some things that are easy and casual recipes. That's what I wanted to talk about for this last book.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 30 - 32 Paris Las Vegas | PG 35 - 39 Honey Bunches of Oats
Read the JAN ISSUE #109 of Athleisure Mag and see SWEET SUCCESS | Chef Dominique Ansel in mag.