Cédric Grolet, head pastry chef at Le Meurice, Paris, has received The World’s Best Pastry Chef 2018 award, at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018. Grolet collected his award at the ceremony at the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, Spain on 19th June.
Born in Firminy, near Saint Etienne, France in 1985, Grolet has already carved an impressive culinary career. He studied at Le Puy-en-Velay and the renowned Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie in Yssingeaux, before taking his first role in a Paris kitchen at renowned pâtisserie company Fauchon. After travelling the world to train teams at new Fauchon boutiques and consequently taking a role in Research and Development, Grolet moved on to Restaurant le Meurice Alain Ducasse in 2011, working under Alain Ducasse as a sous-chef.
After being promoted to the positon of Pastry Chef, Grolet has gone on to win a string of accolades, publish his own book, Fruits, and spearhead Le Meurice’s Pastry Boutique, which opened in March 2018. The iconic creations for which Grolet is best known include his incredible sculpted fruits, in addition to traditional French desserts such as St. Honoré cake, Paris-Brest and lemon eclairs.
Grolet said: “It is an honour to win an award which gives me a platform to shine a light on the incredible creativity of pastry chefs the world over. I have been inspired by many innovative chefs in my career and especially by the pâtisserie tradition of my home country of France. I always seek to create moments of togetherness, menus which produce lasting memories and introduce diners to our world. After all, that is what we, as chefs, seek to do every day.”
Le Meurice’s Pastry Boutique, Grolet’s latest project, represents Le Meurice’s first venture of this kind. The establishment, located on Rue de Castiglione in Paris’ 1st arrondissement, is proving popular with both Parisians and tourists alike. Visitors are able to sample a range of products from Grolet’s portfolio, from the simple pleasures of madeleines to intricate trompe-l’œil sculpted fruits.
