The Relais Desserts Awards of Excellence are a bit like the César Awards for the cinema, but for another art: pastry. Every year since 2013, they reward, not the best actors and directors, but the best pastry chefs, during a grand evening and a gala dinner. Here, excellence and prestige are the order of the day.
On June 17, 2018 were revealed the 8 big winners of this 2018 edition of the Relais Desserts Excellence Awards, elected by nearly 3,000 people from the profession (pastry chefs, ice cream makers, caterers, chocolatiers, MOF ...). And it was Claire Damon, the only female winner of the 2018 Relais Desserts Excellence Awards, who was voted Best Boutique Pastry Chef 2018.
Located on Rue du Bac and Boulevard Pasteur, her two boutiques beautifully titled
Des Gâteaux et du Pain are the den of gourmandise. It must be said that the chef trained with
Pierre Hermé, at
Ladurée, for six years; then in the kitchens of the
Bristol and the
Plaza Athénée, where she was assistant chef to
Christophe Michalak.
In 2007, Claire Damon decided to open her first pastry shop, Boulevard Pasteur, in collaboration with baker David Granger. The address on rue du Bac was later opened in 2013.
At Des Gâteaux et du Pain, you can find pastries and breads that honor the French style of bread: the flours are mostly organic, without additives, and the fermentation time of the leaven is carefully calculated to obtain the best possible bread.
The same care is given to sweet creations. At Claire Damon's, you can taste for example the Itiniales CD pie, with blueberry and cream that evokes cut hay. Then there is the Damassé, a surprising marriage of a flan and a pastel de nata; the Pamplemousse Rosa, a delicious rose and grapefruit cake; the Saint-Honoré pistachio-griotte; the Grapefruit Cheesecake or several strawberry pastries, available in several forms: strawberry baba, strawberry tart with orange blossom water, and the now famous J'adore la Fraise .
All of them are more tempting than the others, and are part of a strong approach of respecting the seasons and the producers. At Des Gâteaux et du Pain, the fruits are carefully selected and if they are not in season, or not ripe enough, Claire Damon waits for the perfect moment, when the fruits are full of all their flavors, to use them.
It is impossible to cross the threshold of Des Gâteaux et du Pain without leaving with arms full of delicacies!
