Pierre Hermé

Pierre Hermé ( born November 20, 1961 in Colmar ) is a French pastry chef and entrepreneur. Hermé modernized by Gaston Lenôtre once more the basics of patisserie. It focuses on the refinement, intensity and texture of taste, reduces the decoration to a minimum and refined traditional recipes with better ingredients.

Life and work

Pierre Hermé is the son of Georges Hermé pastry chefs in Colmar, he's Pastry in the fourth generation of his family. He spent his school years at a boarding school of the Marist Brothers. At the weekend, he was allowed to leave the school and spent his free time in his father's bakery. At the age of 14, he applied to a job advertisement in the newspaper of Gaston Lenôtre and was accepted. There he met six years, with 19 years, he was Lenôtres Sous Chef and Pastry Chef of Lenôtre store in the Avenue Victor- Hugo in Paris. He then worked abroad, in the New Carlton Hotel in Brussels and the Intercontinental Hotel Luxembourg, where he led a group of 35 confectioners. In 1985, he became the Pastry Chef of the Paris Fauchon delicatessen dealer. He spent eleven years at Fauchon, where he created among many other things the triangular and tower-shaped chocolate cake " La Cerise sur le gâteau " ( ≈ crowning glory ), which consists of four different textures: praline, ganache, chocolate cream and leaves. 1997 he became a consultant to the group Ladurée pastry chef and made in 1998 independently.

Building a Business

In 1992 he met the journalist Frédérick Grasser - Ernestine, who became his wife four years later. Grasser writes to a large extent its baking books that have already been awarded several international prizes. In 1996 he founded the advertising expert and food critic Charles Znaty and Michel Ferton his company " Socrepa " ( Société de Créations Pâtissières Sarl ), renamed " Pierre Hermé SAS » 2006. In 1998 he opened his first foreign branch in Luxury Hotel New Otani in Tokyo. This was followed in 2000 his first tearoom in Ikspiari at the Tokyo Disney Resort. In 2001 he opened his first patisserie in Paris on the rue Bonaparte 72 ( 6th arrondissement ), now (2012 ) has eleven Hermé boutiques in France, nine in Japan and two in the UK. Its branches and expenses of the baked article are minimally decorated in the style of a jewelry store. With the opening of a factory in the Alsace Witten home in Mulhouse in October 2008, which supplies its stores with macarons and chocolates which employees number increased to 300 in 2012, Groupe Pierre Hermé achieved a turnover of 15 million euros in fiscal 2007. ; Managing Director of the group is Charles Znaty.

During his time as a pastry chef at Fauchon, he led a twice-yearly presentations of his latest creations. As in the fashion industry it loads up today to demonstrations of his Frühling/Sommer- and autumn / winter collections to a certain theme. The parades are held, such as the Parisian nightclub Crazy Horse in prominent places. By 2006, he had already invented a thousand recipes. His ideas for new recipes " he found everywhere: in a conversation, in a new product, in a word, in a breath, in every sense experience. "

Macarons

He is considered a reviver of the macarons, which had always liked him too sweet. In the 1980s, he tried out new recipes with lemon, pistachio, salted caramel and tangerine. A new idea is to heat the sugar syrup, which is stirred only with beaten egg white and then with raw egg whites on the type of Italian meringue, creating a greater stability of Macaronböden is achieved. From then on, the macaron was the most popular pastries in France.

Among his most famous creations include the Rosenmacaron in Ispahan cake pan filled with fresh raspberries and a crème of lychees, raspberries and rose petals. A red Krokantblatt with rose aroma for as Rosenblatt this macaron. It is a tribute to the rose variety Ispahan and the Iranian city of Isfahan. Hermé invented this Macaron at a reception, in which the biography of the Shah's widow Farah Pahlavi was presented, and tried for several weeks, the optimal composition of the ingredients. After the presentation, they called him, thanked him and expressed that they had felt it set back to their Iranian past. Meanwhile, he also varied the recipe to a millefeuille ( custard slices of puff pastry ), pie, sorbet and a fruit cuts.

Initiated in 2005 Hermé the Jour du Macaron on March 20, the calendrical beginning of spring, which is solemnly celebrated in France by many pâtisserie. A portion of the proceeds goes to social- charitable projects. Increasingly participate in it and the patisseries of other countries, such as the delicatessen section of Galeries Lafayette in Berlin and some pastry shops in Canadian and U.S. cities.

Tributes

Hermé and his creations are praised in superlatives since the 1990s. In the Guardian Hermé as the "king of modern patisserie " ( the king of modern pâtisserie ) was called and L' Express called him the Paganini of the desserts. Particularly enthusiastic remarked the American food critic Jeffrey Steingarten, Hermé is a " Picasso of pastry " (Picasso of pastry ) and compared the baking of Hermés chocolate recipes with a acting lessons with Laurence Olivier and painting lessons at Matisse.

Other activities

Hermé taught at the University of Applied Sciences of the high French cuisine École Grégoire Ferrandi - and had there from 2004 to 2009, the « Atelier Pierre Hermé de formation à la Haute Pâtisserie » adapted for professional development in course form. Today ( 2012) he is a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Applied Sciences. He's Ambassador to the Culinary Institute of America and Advisor to the U.S. delicatessen chain Wegmans Food Market in France is a member of Hermé « Académie Culinaire " and other culinary associations. Hermé is also a judge at the annual competition of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France ( MOF), the most prestigious award in the professional field of patisserie.

Awards

Publications

• Secrets Gourmands. Larousse, 1993 ( awarded the Médaille d'or of the « Académie du chocolat ") In this issue is the recipe of his famous cake " La Cerise sur le gâteau ".
• La Pâtisserie de Pierre Hermé. Montagud Editores, Spain, 1994
• Co -author, Larousse Gastronomique, 1996
• Le Larousse des desserts. Larousse, 1997
• Plaisirs Sucrés. Hachette, 1997
• Desserts by Pierre Hermé. Little & Brown, United States, 1998 ( awarded the 1999 IACP Cookbook Award )
• Desserts à la carte. Hachette, 2000
• Secrets Gourmands. Noesis, 2000
• Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé. Little & Brown and Co., Boston 2001, ISBN 0-316-35741-3, (English ).
• Plaisirs Sucrés. nouvelle édition. Hachette, 2002
• Mes desserts au chocolat. Agnès Viénot Éditions, 2002
• Mes desserts Préférés. Agnès Viénot Éditions, 2003
• The Pâtisserie Pierre Hermé of. Matthaes, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 978-3-87516-340-7 ( German ).
• Le Larousse du Chocolat. Larousse, 2005
• Co -author, The Cook 's Book. Dorling Kindersley, London 2005, ISBN 978-1-4053-0337-8, 648 pp.
• Ph 10 Agnès Viénot Éditions, 2005, ISBN 2-914645-72-4
• Gourmandises. Agnès Viénot Éditions, 2006
• Comme un chef. Larousse, 2006
• Le Larousse des desserts. Larousse, 2006
• Confidences Sucrées. Agnès Viénot Éditions, 2007
• Larousse chocolate: 380 recipes. Christian, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-88472-741-6, hardcover ( German ).
• Macaron. Agnès Viénot Éditions, 2008, 208 pp., ISBN 978-2-35326-035-5 Macarons. Photographs by Bernhard Winkelmann. Grub Street Cookery, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-908117-23-6, 208 pp. (English).
• Carrement Chocolat. Agnès Viénot Éditions, 2009, ISBN 978-2-35326-058-4
• Infiniment. Agnès Viénot Éditions, 2010, ISBN 978-2-35326-086-7
• Le Larousse des desserts. Recettes, Techniques & Tours de May Hachette, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-03-586938-8, 463 pp.
• Best of Pierre Hermé. Alain Ducasse Édition, 2011, ISBN 978-2-84123-350-2 (French)

Film

• Kings of Pastry. Documentary, USA, France, 2009, 87 min, Director: Chris Hegedus, DA Pennebaker, the film side. Hermé examined here at the annual competition Meilleur Ouvrier de France ( MOF), the pâtisserie of his colleagues.