Jeffrey Cagnes in 5 pastries
Jeffrey Cagnes, one of France's leading pastry chefs, retraces his career through five desserts, reflecting his love of classic French pastry and his multicultural origins.
Jeffrey Cagnes draws on his personal and professional background to revisit the great classics. Each creation marks a stage in his career, an encounter or an emotion, always guided by the quest for taste and the desire to tell a story.
The dessert he keeps revisiting: the lemon tart
"The lemon tart has followed my entire career. It's a dessert I wanted to make my own in all the houses I've worked in."Today, at the head of his own company, he makes a version based on olive oil and basil, a veritable ode to the Mediterranean and his origins: "It allows me to tell my story and my culture. It's a concentrate of sunshine."
An updated classic: the black forest
"I've always loved the Black Forest. Chocolate, whipped cream and cherry... It represents a strong story. There's so much to be said for the classics of French pastry, you just have to bring them up to date", says the chef. With time and experience, he has developed this emblematic dessert. The forêt noire now features a milk mousse to replace the chantilly, a morello cherry amarena confit, and a chocolate cookie and crunch.
A dessert he prefers to keep simple: rum baba
After his time at Stohrer, baba au rhum has become a staple in Jeffrey Cagnes's career, this cake having been invented by Nicolas Stohrer in the XVIIIᵉ century. For the pastry chef, "it's at its best in its simplest form, with hints of orange, rum and chantilly served on the side. It doesn't need a parade to be successful".
A dessert for fun: the croissant bar
"I love viennoiserie. Working with dough can be laborious, yet it's exciting." Today, croissants are enjoying a real revival. To keep up with trends while respecting the product, Jeffrey Cagnes is having fun with this emblematic viennoiserie. He has imagined a croissant bar offering original creations, without ever distorting the savoir-faire. Croissant with lemon tart or a Paris-Brest version, these variations are served like small cakes, with great attention paid to the puff pastry.
The most popular pastry: the saint-honoré
"The saint-honoré incorporates all the skills of a pastry chef in one cake," says the chef. Chantilly, crème pâtissière, chou, puff pastry, caramelization... each element is assembled by hand.
"I also like to have fun with this creation, making blackcurrant saint-honorés, for example, but also offering its more classic version with vanilla and salted butter caramel."
