William Lamagnere - Chef Pâtissier

Jeudi 7 mars William Lamagnere - Chef Pâtissier

Yesterday I had the special treat of visiting chef patissier William Lamagnère in his 'labo' or laboratoire as French patisserie kitchens are referred to. We met at the Mont Blanc tasting. William's Mont Blanc creation was magnifique.

William has been the pastry chef at la Cloiserie des Lilas for 6 years, a divine brasserie I hope to visit soon. Previously he worked at Laduree. 

We were cloistered in a tiny kitchen sou sol(in the cellar. One doesn't want to imagine summers down there with the hot oven/ fore blasting). Here William and his assistant turned out hundreds of desserts for the daily lunch service + gougere as an amuse bouche for starters. This is ganache de noisette

To go on the tartelette au Graduja noir.

Watching William work close up was daunting. When you bite into a supremely delicious dessert you rarely give a thought to its preparation. The stages it went through to reach such perfection.

I don't think I'll ever eat another dessert lightly again. Pastry chefs are artists of precision in the kitchen.

All senses are at work, not just taste, but color, design, scent of course, even architecture is a consideration.

The multiple layering of flavors is key in French pastry. Mostly you're not aware of the  subtlety involved. The finished tartelette au Granduja.

Next up preparation for the Saint-Honore au pamplemousse et baies de goji. Here William cuts the thin leaves of pastry that are the base of this dessert. Or perhaps he's toasting it with his torch or...I lost track and my kitchen French is not up to snuff.

One of Williams tricks and he has many up his sleeve..is to take two flavours of whipped cream (one a special non-acidic Chinoise grapefruit with a touch of goji berries) the other plain cream and put them together into one pastry sleeve.

Out comes a two-sided cream you might not even notice as you're chomping down but the flavours would subltely announce themselves to your tastebuds...

Here a closer view of the two-sided, two-flavoured whipped cream. William was very generous with tastes/goutes in case you're wondering...though there were a number of pots of ganache in the sink I would have loved to have gotten my hands into...

Almost done. The little puffs nesting on top are filled with cream au pamplemousse then dipped lightly into a hot caramel sauce with a touch of pepper (I think..)
Desserts change daily FYI.

Enfin the finished Saint-Honore au pamplemousse adorned with fresh fruit and goji berries.

Simply glorious no? Though not so simple in the creation.

A Big Merci to William Lamagnere for letting me observe yesterday.