Who doesn't love an epic pastry and whenyou're in NYC, James Beard winner ChefDominique Ansel is known for makingpastry moments with being the creator ofthe Cronut, Cookie Shots, DKA, and FrozenS'mores to name a few at Dominique AnselBakery. You can also continue to enjoyhis artistry at Dominique Ansel Workshop,Dominique Ansel Las Vegas in Caesars Palaceand Dominique Ansel Marché in ParisVegas. He is known for creating magicalmoments in each bite.We had the pleasure of attending an editor'sevent to see him make memorablebreakfast bites in partnership with HoneyBunches of Oats Chocolate Cereal thatwas perfectly decadent as we navigate theWinter season. We also sat down with himto talk about how he came to the worldof pastry, his creative process, and more!ATHLEISURE MAG: We’ve wanted to chatwith you for a number of years for AthleisureMag so it was such a pleasure to tasteyour treats and creations at today’s event!I’m sure my trainer is not going to like itha!CHEF DOMINIQUE ANSEL: Ha, don’tblame it on me!AM: I’m not going to blame it on you! I wasthe person who ate everything haha!When did you first fall in love with pastryand when did you realize that you wantedto be a pastry chef?CHEF DA: That’s a good question. I wasnot expecting this question. So, you know,when I left school I was barely 16. My parentscouldn't afford – I lived in a project,my parents couldn't afford to send me toschool. So, early on, I decided to get a jobto 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 sobad and my grandma was good. My momwas horrible and oftentimes like, I will endup in the kitchen trying to save dinner. I'lltry to put something together so you caneat something not fancy at all, but just ed-ible!AM: Right!CHEF DA: When I was that age, I waslike, maybe I'll work in the kitchen. MaybeI'll be a chef. I'll try. And I found likea school that was free that welcomedme and I was doing an apprenticeship.So I would work in a restaurant for 3weeks and go to school for a week,every month, it will be like this. So atfirst, I was a chef, a savory chef for 2years. And you know, I love cooking. Ilove it today as much as I love baking. Idon't do it as much, but I do baking fora living. When I was cooking, I wouldoften do the desserts. So that was theonly time where I'd pull a recipe, I'dread the recipe, and make this pastry.I remember it was like a Walnut Cake,very simple but really good. I wouldmake this Walnut Cake and every timeI'd make it, it was coming out perfectbecause I'm scaling and measuring everything.AM: Right, yeah.CHEF DA: I love that! I love the sciencebehind it. I love the precision, I lovethe details and I love the fact that, youknow, you could be creative with pastry.You can take like, raw ingredients,like sugar, flour, butter, and build thatbeautiful showpiece like chocolate.You can’t do this with cooking. Cookingis more intuitive. Cooking is moreintimate and it’s about knowing the ingredients.AM: Yeah.CHEF DA: It’s about how to seasonthem like if they are ripe or not.AM: Yeah.CHEF DA: It's a lot different. It’s differentskills but I fell in love with bakingthen and I was like I'm gonna do a 3rdyear of the apprenticeship. I'm gonnado it with baking so I did that and you
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