In France, the artisanal trades of bread baking and haute pâtisserie—like the rest of the country’s culinary scene—have historically been dominated by men. Nicolas Stohrer, King Louis XV’s pastry chef and the founder of the oldest pastry shop in Paris, along with Marie-Antoine Carême, the onetime chef to the royal court, set the course in the 18th century by inventing everything from profiteroles to the boozy baba au rhum. The generations of male bakers that followed often credited their mères and grands-mères as inspiration for their careers, but women have otherwise been footnotes at best.
No longer: Entrepreneurial women now run many of the capital’s most beloved sweets destinations.
Julie Mathieu, co-owner and founding editor of Fou de Pâtisserie, a pastry concept shop and France’s leading baking magazine, says the recent proliferation…
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Conde Nast Traveler (Digital) - 1 Issue, January/February 2021