Make way for youth!
After more than ten years in the hands of the reference Pierre Hermé, the Royal Monceau - Raffles Paris (8th) announces the arrival of Quentin Lechat as pastry chef.
Coming from the Novotel-Les Halles (Paris 1er), the 31-year-old pastry chef stood out in particular in 2019, on the occasion of the first Pastry Grand Prix organized by the City of Paris and chaired by ... Pierre Hermé!
He won it with his creation "Noisette 3", a Paris-Brest revisited in the shape of a Parisian paving stone (caramelized cabbage, biscuit, bergamot, chestnut honey, hazelnut mousse and sour orange, bamboo charcoal powder for the gray flocking ).
Its tea time in the private garden of the hotel has since made the sweet tooth of the capital run wild, particularly fond of its vanilla flan and its madeleine, worked in a classic way.
Read also: These young talents who are reinventing French pastry
With this nomination, the palace of the Golden Triangle undoubtedly wishes, in a very competitive sweet universe, to differentiate itself and better embody its creation than with a Pierre Hermé inseparable from the reputation of its house.
“The spirit of Royal Monceau-Raffles Paris has been breaking the rules for ten years.
Bring new life, new blood and youth, while respecting the integrity of the place and its experience ”
commented its CEO Christophe Thomas.
Get to the point
Quentin Lechat will present his first creation for Valentine's Day: the Pomelo've will be available in click & collect from February 10 to 15, 2021 (38 € for 2 people).
This citrus fan has imagined a dessert with pink grapefruit, almond powder, candied ginger (a nod to Matsuhisa, the palace's Japanese restaurant), pomegranate seeds and wild rose.
A fresh dessert flocked with red thanks to raspberry powder.
Romeo Balancourt Pomelo've
Quentin Lechat does not show a classic course: he has only been in pastry for ten years.
Initially enrolled in law school in Lyon, he branched out into pastry training in a vocational school in 2011. After a first experience at the Chalet des îles (Paris 16th), he went through the Royal Evian, the Hôtel de la Tremoille, the Faust restaurant, l'Oka, before being spotted by the Novotel-Les Halles (2018).
He says he wants to get to the point, without too much demonstrative technique, but with an obsession with freshness and gluttony.
“The dessert must be sober,
” he said
, “be sufficient on its own, respect its title and not be too talkative, nor deny yourself in the despair.
My ideal: it is elegance ”
.
Two pastry chefs to follow
Among the other movements to follow on the side of Parisian pastry chefs in their thirties, two departures.
That of Nicolas Haelewyn for personal reasons of the Ladurée house (which he had however joined only recently).
He now devotes himself to the Atelier Gato collective (Guyancourt) which he coordinates.
And above all that of Jeffrey Cagnes from the Stohrer house, after four years at the head of his sweet brigades, to
"start alone and give life to projects that are still maturing in [his] heart"
.