“Picasso of Pastry”, Pierre Hermé, guest star at SIGEP
Pierre Hermé, known also as the “Picasso of Pastry”, one of the greatest French pastry chefs, will be the president of the jury at the under-23 World Junior Pastry Championship at SIGEP 2015.
Pierre Hermé is 53 years old and has an Alsacian origin. He descends from a dynasty of bakers and pastry chefs, is Chevalier of Arts and Letters and Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. In recent years, the French pastry chef has promoted a school of haute patisserie, has numerous “boutiques” in Paris, Tokyo and London, where gourmands and connoisseurs discover his seasons’ collections, matches and inventions, the result of creativity, technique and research on raw materials. His macarons are a gastronomic legend, as are his unequalled croissants and chocolate. Hermé is in Rimini for the 36th edition of SIGEP.
“I don’t believe a recipe exists for becoming a great pastry chef. There are however numerous ingredients that must be taken into consideration. Technique, in-depth knowledge of the raw materials, curiosity and courage. All held together by the mastery of one’s abilities and, above all, a lot of time”, explained Hermé just before the championship’s award ceremony.
For him, experience and teaching are essential for growth:
“The great masters were important for me before I opened my boutiques – the first were in Japan in ’98, then Paris from 2002- I worked for great personalities in this world and they enabled me to learn this profession’s techniques and create one of my own.”
At SIGEP for the first time, Hermé was struck by the expo’s level and quality: “At every event I participate in, I certainly don’t find the “news of the century”, but at each international appointment you always discover some small new detail, something interesting and innovative. What strikes me most about SIGEP is the quantity and quality of the exhibitors in the gelato and pastry sectors.”
An important comment from a pastry chef who has made the knowledge of raw materials the key to his success:
“It is necessary to know the story of each ingredient, of who produces it and the way it’s made. It is necessary to travel. This process never finishes – it lasts a lifetime. I’ve done it since I was a youngster and you must always continue to be curious and eager to search. Also and above all today. We live in a fast-moving global world. Everything moves very rapidly and can be found on the Web, but we must always take time to search and discover things personally.” On the other hand, concluded Hermé, “time, lots of time”, is what it takes to make a great pastry chef. A clear message to youngsters: there are no shortcuts for becoming a world pastry star.