Jérôme ALLEAUME

Pastry Chef : L'Essentiel Although he entered the restaurant industry relatively late in life—at nearly 30 years old—Jérôme Alleaume is now the pastry chef at one of the most charming fine-dining restaurants on the Normandy coast.

Presentation

Born on the hills above the famous port that so inspired Claude Monet and Eugène Boudin, the young Jérôme Alleaume took up pastry-making at a very early age, inspired by an older brother who was a chef. However, once he had earned his CAP in pastry arts, a bad first experience ( “as sometimes happens in our profession” ) led him to take a different path. He tried his hand at several other manual trades, such as carpentry, came to terms with that bad experience, and then returned to his first love by joining the team at a major Normandy-based catering company.

A pivotal encounter with Chef Nicolas Innocenti

“I stayed there for seven years as a pastry chef, in an environment that was obviously different from that of a restaurant. I was kind of on autopilot until I realized I was getting bored. I joined the restaurant Les Cures Marines in Trouville as a seasonal employee, working alongside Chef Johan Thyriot (Editor’s note: now at the helm of the Domaine du Colombier in the Drôme). Johan taught me a great deal about the use of peppers, a field he masters perfectly. I was then fortunate that Nicolas Innocenti—now sous chef at the George V—took over the pastry kitchen. He’s a top-tier technician, and it was really working alongside him that sparked my passion.”

Recruited by a headhunter to join L’Essentiel, the restaurant run by chefs Charles Thuillant and Mi-Ra Kim in Deauville, Jérôme Alleaume envisions staying in the restaurant industry for a few more years. His contemporary vision of pastry art blends perfectly with the multicultural cuisine created by the two chefs. “And later on, who knows—why not open a tea room, for example?”