Pastry Power
December 2014 Gulf Gourmet
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FRENCH CONNECTION Laurent Allereau, the executive pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Canal in Abu Dhabi, shows us how you can infuse exoticism into something as mass market as a cupcake
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hen it comes to pastry, the French are unarguably the leaders. From the delicate macaroons to the creamy éclair, from to the sugary stacks of the mille-fueille to the teasing contrast of the religieuse, France has much to romance the sweet palate. As does Laurent Allereau, the executive pastry chef of the Ritz-Carlton Grand Canal in Abu Dhabi. He can infuse exoticism into even something as mass market as a cupcake, using melt-in-yourmouth biscuits and unusual toppings. A native of Brittany in northern France, Chef Laurent didn’t really have to think hard to decide on a profession. “Baking is in my genes. My great grandfather was a baker and my grandmother was excellent at making pastry and cakes,” he elaborates, going back in time when at the age of 6-7 years, he would follow his grandmother into the kitchen to lick the cake batter. With his mind made-up in his early years itself, Chef Laurent took a two-year course from a French Culinary Academy, graduating in 1988. When he won a medal for ‘best apprentice in LoireAtlantique’, he received an offer to work at the 3-Michelin star restaurant, Le Gavroche, in London. “It was a highpressure job but I learnt how to work under pressure. I worked there for a year,” says the chef. Stints in a couple of other restaurants in
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