Un recently installed world pastry champion, a constellation of talents in ambush… Is La Rochelle on the verge of becoming the new stronghold of haute couture pastry in New Aquitaine? Some may judge this question as enthusiasm mixed with a thick layer of chauvinism, but let's embrace this greedy euphoria. It's hard not to be a few days before Nina Métayer arrives in town for a double dose of pleasures and especially new things. Because yes, the former pastry chef of the cathodic and double Michelin star Jean-François Piège comes with the ambition of a double cream millefeuille: the opening of two bakeries-pastry shops (1) bearing her signature.
Family work
For several years now, the 36-year-old young woman had dreamed of having a storefront in her hometown. “This return, or this arrival home, I always wanted to do in conjunction with Denis Baron, the only one to have given me my chance as an apprentice. Since May, things have come full circle, I bought his two establishments, Fournil and Paillat,” says Nina Métayer. Happy, smiling, in jeans and a black vest, without fuss and without a hat, the most famous pastry chef in France decided on this foggy October morning to give us a preview tour of her two new homes.
“It was not easy, we had to build a solid project and convince the bankers,” she continues in the middle of a ballet of masons and carpenters. The one who travels the planet all year round in a proselytizing gourmet and business whirlwind, discovers at the same time as us the progress of the work by biting into a giga croissant with AOC Poitou-Charentes butter. The eye is laser, the method gentle. “The window here will be very good… remember to put away the flour bags…”
“I work as a family with my husband, my sisters and my friends… it helps with confidence,” she assures while she checks the puff pastry of one of her bakers. As I decided to continue living in Paris, I brought here my production manager Chloé Vierling and Florian Beziaud, a childhood friend who will manage the operation of the two establishments. »
Our customers want to find the signature cakes that made us known… and local creations
Le Fournil will be the beating heart of the Métayer company in La Rochelle. “This will be our place of production, storage and our administrative site. It is here that the pastries of the two establishments will be made. On the other hand, the bread will be kneaded and baked in the two addresses because the idea is that each shop has its identity, that it adapts to the humidity of the places, to the wishes of a local clientele and that the we do not reproduce all our creations identically. For the Fournil we wanted a place between tradition and modernity where the laboratory, glazed, modern and in tune with the times, will be visible. Like a theater stage decorated with period bricks and some elements from the old oven which could not be preserved. »
Meeting Saint-Honoré and cookie
Chez Paillat, a place steeped in history, decorated with stained glass windows and old oak beams, the rustic identity will be preserved. “But I will add a signature to it with objects that I recovered from my grandparents’ old La Rochelle apartment on rue Gambetta. »
Now let's get serious. What will we be able to taste? “For pastries it will be the same range as that found in Paris at the Délicatisserie. Our customers want to find the signature cakes that have made us known: La Fleur Vanille, the Saint-Cookie (the regressive meeting between the Saint-Honoré and the Cookie), the lemon meringue tart or the black forest. But we will also find éclairs, flans, seasonal logs, pancakes, a wide range of pastries and undoubtedly creations that will come over time. »
So many products that you can pre-order on the Délicatisserie website to be sure not to find yourself in front of a robbed window. For breads, the variety will be as wide as traditional: from traditional or seeded baguette, through black bread, to small spelled bread, and some signature breads to discover… “With millstone flours, without additives and sometimes organic », promises Nina Métayer.
(1) Le Fournil, 90 boulevard Sautel, opens Saturday November 16 at 11 a.m. Chez Paillat, 170, avenue Carnot, opens Sunday, November 17 at 9:30 a.m.
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