When I was a junior chef in the early seventies, French cuisine was going through a revolution that was referred to as ''. At the time it became fashionable for young chefs to dare to create new dishes and to innovate and adapt classic dishes by making them lighter, smaller, easier to digest and more attractive to the eye.
The French pâtissiers, however, took a little longer to revolutionise their gâteaux and patisseries. Until the 1990's in most French pâtisseries the selection of petits gâteaux was identical. The norm was little cakes made with puff pastry like , apple turnovers and apple tarts. Other seasonal fruit tarts had a sweet pastry base and were coated in an apricot glaze.
There were also a number of sponge-based cakes flavoured with various buttercreams, as well as a variety of brioche shapes.
Amongst the most popular were gâteaux made with choux pastry, such as Paris Brest, Saint Honoré and éclairs. This is what French people knew and loved.
Encouraged by the success of modern cuisine, contemporary pâtissiers gradually became more creative and now feel freer to innovate. In fact, the sweet world has become astonishingly exciting.
With encouragement from television exposure and social media, where they can instantly share their innovations, pastry chefs are now becoming superstars.
The most popular are trendsetters and their influence is felt worldwide. The leaders are making amazing-looking cakes that are usually smaller, lighter and less sweet than those in the past.
New technology is playing an important part in helping pâtissiers to be successful. Modern multi-function ovens are more precise, and there is a multitude of small types of equipment, like moulds and nozzles that create exciting shapes and decorations.
Importantly, food manufacturers, like chocolate makers, pastry ingredient makers and flavour innovators, have become very creative.
One of the star pâtissiers is Cédric Grolet, head pastry chef of the Meurice Hotel in Paris. This artistic pastry chef creates delicious fruit-shaped gluten-free desserts that others are copying all around the world. Almost one million people follow him on Instagram.
He has also created a fun cake that resembles a Rubik's cube, composed of 25 squares of small cakes with exotic flavours.
The much-loved éclair, traditionally flavoured with vanilla, coffee or chocolate custard is now offered in dozens of different flavours, including tea, yuzu and rose, and presented in many exotic ways, including gorgeous ice creams.
One thing's for sure, we're in for a long-lasting pâtisserie revolution!
The Best of Taste le Tour with Gabriel Gaté airs every night from Saturday 6 July and finishes Sunday 28 July 2019. Visit the website to catch-up on episodes online, scroll through recipes or find out more about the show.
