Julien ALANIECE
Pastry Chef : 1 restaurant In the kitchen of Le Balbec, at the Grand Hôtel de Cabourg, Julien Alanièce deploys his abundant creativity, creating daring desserts in which vegetables and spices find their rightful place.
But nothing predestined him for pastry-making. " I'm not one of those people who woke up with a silver spoon and said 'I want to do that when I grow up' ," he says. It all clicked after his school-leaving certificate: " In fact, in the training course, it was 'à la mode', everyone said you had to go into the kitchen. "
After graduating with a BEP, he nevertheless felt that he was missing " that little something " that he would later find in creative pastry-making. Before taking his professional baccalaureate in 2004, he decided to take a complementary diploma in restaurant desserts, a revelation that would seal his future.
First jump into the deep end
In 2005, with a vocational baccalaureate from the Greta de l'Aube in his pocket, he joined the Hôtel de la Paix in Geneva as a commis pâtissier. It was his " first real experience ", both formative and seminal: " It was there that I made the transition from child to adult. "Three years later, he took off, working in a string of fine establishments: La Villa in Calvi, Grenier à Sel in Caen alongside Patrick Fréchin (3 toques), then Villa Eugène, before settling down at Le Balbec as head pastry chef.
"There's no routine
Today, at the head of a five-strong brigade, this native of Normandy asserts his freedom: " There's no routine: we make desserts by the plate, but also breakfasts, mignardises, sorbets..." His favorite playground? Vegetables, of course, and always in season. "In each of my menus, I propose what I call the 'bizarre dessert', where we step out of our comfort zone. I've worked with carrots, celery, spices like vadouvan..."
A willingness to take risks, backed by the confidence of his management: " I'm lucky to be allowed to express myself, and to have a team that's very open to experimentation. "
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