Pierre Hermé
Parisian pastry guru Pierre Hermé knew he wanted to bake for a living since he was nine. (How many of us can say the same?) The chef dishes to Adele Wong on his hatred of cupcakes, and why he chose Tokyo to open his first-ever pastry shop.
On Beginnings
I started my apprenticeship with Gaston Lenôtre [another famous French pastry chef]. That’s how I established my basics. Monsieur Lenôtre is certainly the person who [pushed me towards] what I do today.
It was obvious to set up shop in Tokyo. I went to Japan in 1997 and had some time to discover Japan and meet people. My first pastry shop in Tokyo was the result of some chance meetings. The pastries were already well represented in Japan. You had French pastry chefs who established their brands and settled in Japan. You had Japanese pastry chefs who studied in France and came back to Japan. You also had Japanese brands that made French pastries.
We took a long time to look into the Hong Kong project, to observe, and now I think it’s the right moment for us.
On Flavors
I don’t make different products for Asians, Europeans, the French. They get all the same products from Pierre Hermé. When you go to a Louis Vuitton shop, you want to buy a bag from LV. You want the original.
The chocolate macaron is our bestselling flavor. Rose, caramel, praline—these are all very popular flavors.
What gives macarons taste is actually the filling, not the shells. And we put a lot of filling into our macarons. That’s why they are so tasty. In our macarons, you have a combination of taste and texture.
Ispahan is a city in Iran. It’s also the name of a rose. The “Ispahan” is a cake I created, with a macaron base, rose crème, lychee, fresh raspberries. The first rose cake I created, the “Paradise,” had rose and raspberries only. Ten years later, I wanted to make something that had more contrasting textures. I discovered that lychee has a rose-y flavor, so it was an obvious match.