Since November 2011 he has run a shop in the ninth arrondissement of Paris, selling delicacies from the past that are no longer always available in every patisserie.
These include the Puits d’amour, a dessert created by the 18th Century chef Vincent La Chapelle, its hollow centre stuffed with vanilla cream, and the classic Paris-Brest, made of choux pastry and a praline-flavoured cream, inspired by the Paris-Brest-Paris cycle race – its circular shape representing a bicycle wheel.
A speciality is the Mussipontain a cake made of meringue, vanilla cream and caramelised almonds whose name derives from the inhabitants of the city of Pont-à-Mousson, Gaudard’s home town. This is his father’s own creation.
But whether people prefer startling creativity or traditional pastries, all pastry chefs are out to please their customers – and the customers evidently enjoy being pleased.
“We sell pleasure,” says Gaudard. “People come to us for pleasure.”
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