Chef Rémy Fünfrock is always busy. Always.
As the executive chef at La Patisserie, Hotel Bennett’s French pastry shop in Charleston, Fünfrock is constantly whipping up culinary delights for hotel guests and visitors alike.
Needless to say, the holidays bring an added layer of activity to the bustling patisserie. Fünfrock wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It just goes, goes, goes,” Fünfrock said of La Patisserie’s supply of daily goods. “It doesn’t matter what we put in the showcase — it just goes. So, that’s great.”
A James Beard Award–nominated chef, Fünfrock has been at the helm of La Patisserie since it opened in 2019. Before he joined Hotel Bennett, Fünfrock worked at The Sanctuary at Kiawah. The Lyon-born chef got his start in France, though, when he long ago decided that baking was far more fun than cooking.
French origins
After attending culinary school in France, Fünfrock decided he needed to give as much attention to post-meal dishes as he did to cooking in general.
“My goal was to maybe one day open a restaurant,” Fünfrock said. “And I needed to have good desserts if I had good food.”
You’ll find daily delights in La Patisserie’s pastry showcase — and a life-size gingerbread house in the hotel’s
lobby this holiday season | Ashley Stanol
He worked in a pastry shop where everything was made from scratch, an important foundation for his future as an award-winning pastry chef.
He also tried his hand at the regular restaurant business in France. “And I didn’t like it,” he joked.
So, Fünfrock’s future was decided: The goal was to work only in pastry shops. Eventually Fünfrock was working as the pastry chef in Roger Vergé’s 3-star Michelin restaurant, Moulin de Mougins, about three miles north of Cannes, France.
Vergé introduced Fünfrock to Daniel Bouloud, owner of world-renowned Manhattan restaurant Daniel, among other celebrated dining spots. In 1997, Fünfrock moved to the United States to work as the executive pastry chef at Daniel.
Now firmly planted in the South, Fünfrock is passionate about introducing Lowcountry locals and visitors to French pastries.
“It has been a long process,” Fünfrock said of teaching customers about French desserts. “When we first opened everybody was like, ‘What is this? What is that?’ … People were not trying as much because it was so different from what they were used to seeing.”
Now, though, Fünfrock said customers trust the team at La Patisserie, and repeat customers return over and over for new-to-them treats. Part of the learning curve involves distinguishing between a bakery and a pastry shop.
“I am very attached to the fact that it’s a patisserie and not a bakery,” the chef said.
You will not find donuts or cupcakes at La Patisserie. Perhaps, though, you’ll find a newfound love for a dessert you never knew you even liked.
“To change the perception of someone who doesn’t like a specific product and [for them to say] they love it shows that maybe everything they had before was not properly made,” Fünfrock said.
He said he loves watching customers’ faces as they take in the daily pastry showcase.
“All of a sudden, I see a big smile,” he said. “That makes me happy. They don’t have to say anything.”
Holiday traditions
Over the past three years, Hotel Bennett has started its own holiday tradition: the implementation of a life-size gingerbread house in the hotel lobby. Naturally, the hotel’s in-house pastry chef is in charge of the massive undertaking.
With 150 pounds of icing and 320 pounds of gingerbread, the monstrous pastry takes three months to design, bake and put together.
While fun and whimsical, the gingerbread house doesn’t have any ties to traditional French celebrations.
“We don’t do that in France at all,” Fünfrock said.
Regardless, he gives the people what they want. And he and the team work hard to put together a delightful experience for all hotel visitors.
Ashley Stanol
If you’re looking for a French holiday tradition, well, Fünfrock is happy to fill you in on some of his childhood favorites.
“The festive time of holidays [in France] is [centered] around food and, of course, desserts,” Fünfrock said. He reminisced about favorites like marzipan, chocolate-dipped fruits and pralines roses (pink sugar-coated almonds) from his hometown of Lyon.
Fünfrock noted that different regions of France have their own specialty desserts and traditions, and that while American traditions are not quite the same, parts of downtown Charleston itself remind him of Europe.
He likened Hotel Bennett’s corner of King Street to the location of a pastry shop where he worked in Provence.
“You have the church [across the street] and the square not too far away,” he said. “It gives me goosebumps now, just talking about it. We start early in the morning and around seven in the morning when we take a break, we have a cup of coffee or something and sometimes we go outside to get a bit of fresh air because it’s so hot in the kitchen.
“The sunrise is here and sometimes I just get out on the street and take two to three minutes to feel the sea,” Fünfrock continued. “And it just brings back memories. So, all I want to do is go back into the kitchen and bake some more French stuff.”
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