Grégory MASSE

Pastry Chef : 1 restaurant Boldness and hard work sum up the career of Grégory Masse, currently head pastry chef at L'Assiette Champenoise and winner of the Pâtissier Grand Est 2023 trophy.

Presentation

"I've always loved to eat, so I decided to become a chef," tells Grégory Masse. However, a trial run in a restaurant didn't please him as much as he'd hoped. In the end, it was in the village bakery that he found his calling: pastry-making.

With a CAP in his pocket, he followed this up with a mention complémentaire. "Thebakery was good, but there was nothing exciting about it.I knew how to bake bread, but I wanted to make pastries", so at the age of 15 he decided to meet the region's best pastry chef: Sylvain Suty. During his two-year technical diploma, Suty encouraged the young pastry chef to take part in competitions. "Wheneverthere was a competition for sugar pieces, chocolate pieces, pièces montées, etc., I'd go. In three years, I did around twenty."

During his BTM, he immersed himself in catering, at Château Les Crayères, with Didier Elena. "I'd never done a plate setting in my life," he says, but during a service, he took charge of the team and was noticed by his superiors, who offered him a position. He stayed there for two years, until Sylvain Suty offered him the chance to join him in Dormans (Marne). "I accepted and managed a team of seven people for three years."

In 2012, he missed the restaurant business. So he joined L'Assiette Champenoise, in Tinqueux (Marne), first as second and then as head pastry chef. In 2023, Gault&Millau congratulated him by awarding him the Pâtissier Grand Est trophy.

I. B.