“What is your favorite frangipane? Where do you buy your cake? These are questions that come up a lot among the community. » Founder of the KindaBreak website, Chloé Delanoue herself surveyed the 55,000 subscribers of her Instagram account. Before considering providing them with an answer on the occasion of this epiphany period, through a gourmet agreement made with the food influencer Chrichri_basque.
“We have four pancakes made in the south of the Landes, and eight from the Basque Country,” warns Christophe Rambeau to the attention of the nine other tasters selected to be part of this first meeting of the Food Testers Club, in the afternoon this Saturday, January 4, 2025. Host of the day, in her “Kinda House” in the Bourdaines district of Seignosse, Chloé Delanoue has placed the various pastries on the living room table.
Chloé Delanoue (Kinda Break) and Christophe Rambeau (Chrichri_basque) are two influencers particularly active in the Basque Country and the south of the Landes.
Isabelle Louvier / SO
No one really dares to grab a knife to break the layers of the pancakes, decorated with a sticker numbered from 1 to 12. The time has come to take videos or photos for these Basque-Landes influencers including the audience is counted in kilos, like the 65,000 subscribers to Maïa Chä's Instagram account.
Mystery and frangipane
“The first bite of pancake of the year is bound to be a treat,” agrees Fleur Wendling. With 107,000 people who follow her recipes on social networks, Biarrotte is one of the testers unaware of what a frangipane really is. Emma Nourreau, from the Basque Country Guide, and Audrey Labeyrie, Garbure & Chipiron, talk about “almond cream”. But the recipe turns out to be incomplete.
Isabelle Louvier / SO
The visual appearance of the pancakes submitted for tasting was taken into account.
“A frangipane is a mixture between a pastry cream and an almond cream,” underlines head chef Aurélien Largeau. This clarification makes it possible to initiate debate among the guests. Should we put “the creations of pastry chefs” tasted at the bottom of the ranking? “The main thing is taste and pleasure,” recalls Christophe Rambeau. The table was surprised to find aromas of jasmine, mango and lime in a cake, ultimately ranked third.
Some people are starting to think that “sharing a slice between two people” can be useful in order to taste the twelfth pancake. Prices are requested. The begged beans. “The quality of the lamination, here reversed”, is unanimous. The original flavors, chocolate or caramelized, divide the palates. One of them, however, surprises and even makes you want to come back to it, once the winners are revealed by Christophe Rambeau: “It’s a pancake without almonds, an Arto Gorri corn frangipane. »
Isabelle Louvier / SO
The taste of the pancake was the first criterion to take into account for the members of the jury, here Fleur Wendling, Emma Nourreau, from the Guide du Pays Basque, her daughter, and the chef Aurélien Largeau.
The palmarès
This first meeting of the Club of food testers from the Basque Country and the south of the Landes crowned the frangipane galette from Maison Minvielle, in Saint-Martin-de-Hinx. The one made by Maison Gautier, in Anglet, ranks second, followed by that of Explore, in Anglet.
The jury was made up of Maïa Chä, Christophe Rambeau (Chrichri_basque), Fleur Wendling (Eatwithflower), Audrey Labeyrie (Garbure & Chipirons), Jean-Baptiste Ancelot (Wine Explorers), Chloé Delanoue (Kinda Break), Emma Nourreau (Guide du Pays Basque), chef Aurélien Largeau and Benjamin Ferret (“Sud Ouest”).
