For the past 25 years, pastry chef Christophe Rull has both worked in and led pastry programs at restaurants and hotels in the U.S. and in his native France. Now he’s gone solo.
On Saturday morning, the 40-year-old San Marcos resident will host the grand opening of Christophe Rull Patisserie in the North City shopping district near Cal State San Marcos. The petite shop serves fresh-baked eclairs, macarons, croissants, brioche, cinnamon rolls, muffins, cruffins, cookies, quiches, croissant breakfast sandwiches and chilled fruit and chia seed pudding cups.
Fresh-baked croissants, left, and chocolate croissants at newly opened Christophe Rull Patisserie in the North City community of San Marcos. (Pam Kragen / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Rull is best known for his starring role in the Netflix baking competition series “Bake Squad” and for his triumphs in chocolate-making and shaping. He won the title of U.S. Chocolate Master in 2021 and came in fifth place in the 2022 World Chocolate Master competition in Paris. He also served as the executive pastry chef at the Park Hyatt Aviara resort in Carlsbad from 2016 to 2021.
About four years ago, Rull said he started thinking about working for himself, running a simple but authentic French patisserie that he could design to his own personal high standards.
Until he can afford to hire and train a baking crew, he is personally baking everything himself to ensure quality control. He’s importing his butter and flour from France (Normandy butter just tastes better, he says, and the French flour he uses is made without additives or bleaching). He is importing his fruit purées from Les Vergers Boiron, a third-generation Parisian business that grows, picks and preserves fruits at their peak of season. He’s also working with San Diego’s Specialty Produce for fresh fruit and would like to work directly with local farmers in the future.
Pistachio, left, and coffee macaron cookies at the new Christophe Rull Patisserie in the North City community of San Marcos. (Pam Kragen / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The new shop, which is opens from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, is a labor of love for Rull and his wife, Wilma Rull, who gave up her career as an accountant and controller, to help him open his own business. On Monday morning, when the shop soft-opened to a steady crowd of walk-up customers, she was working the cash register.
Rull was born and raised in Marseilles, France, where he started cooking by his father’s side as a small boy and by 15 was working as a chef’s apprentice. After working his way through several Michelin-starred French restaurant kitchens and attending four years of culinary school, he zeroed in on pastry as his career focus.
He finished his training at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieure de Patisserie in Yssingeaux, France, then worked at a series of European resorts before moving to the U.S. in 2009 for a job as a founding pastry chef at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. He later worked at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, the Park Hyatt Aviara and, most recently, a Los Angeles hotel where he launched a new pastry concept.
Fresh-baked pastries at Christophe Rull Patisserie in the North City community of San Marcos. (Pam Kragen / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
After two years in L.A., the Rulls decided they missed their former hometown of San Marcos, and decided to move back earlier this year and open the patisserie. Their apartment is just a two-minute walk away from their new business. Rull said he prefers the slower pace of life in North County, the friendliness of city officials like Mayor Rebecca Jones, who stopped in Monday morning to buy macarons, and the easy access to good waves, since he’s an avid surfer.
The shop offers grab-and-go service, but also indoor and outdoor seating for guests. The shop has toasters to warm up croissants, quiches and other items, and it offers an Italian coffee program by Lavazza.
Rull said he’s starting small to gauge the public’s preferences and sales volume, but he plans to grow the offerings over time. His long-term plans are to add a chocolate program and offer pastry-making classes, something he’s done in the past at a Tustin cooking school and on his own Rull’s Kitchen YouTube channel that has more than 12,000 subscribers.
Christophe Rull Patisserie
Hours: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays; grand opening and ribbon-cutting at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 13
Address: 251 N. City Drive, Suite 121, San Marcos
Phone: 760-539-7070
Online: instagram.com/christopherullpro, youtube.com/@rulls-kitchen
Originally Published: September 12, 2025 at 5:56 AM PDT
Dining and Cooking