On your marks! Ready? Bake! This Thursday, October 10, season 13 of Best Pastry Chef started on M6 with new candidates. Among them, Aurélie, a fifty-year-old woman who made a career as a school teacher. Growing up in a family of beekeepers, she left her teaching profession to devote herself to her passion: bees. Retrained as a beekeeper, she now produces her own honey which she uses extensively in her pastries. Unfortunately, Aurélie was eliminated at the end of the first week of competition, just like Dorothée whom she found under the second chance tent with Noëmie Honiat and Mohammed, semi-finalist of season 10 of Best Pastry Chef. Pour Tele-Leisureshe confides in this experience.
Aurélie signed up for Best pastry chef ten years ago: “I was not selected”
Tele-Leisure : Why did you decide to participate in the Best Pastry Chef ?
Aurélie: Almost ten years ago, my husband and children signed me up, but I was not accepted. I didn’t know if I was really ready. And there, I was at a turning point in my professional life and I said to myself ‘Go ahead, do what you’ve always wanted to do, go ahead, sign up’.
When did you stop being a school teacher?
Officially, it was in September 2023, but in my head, it was in November 2022. I left because of my hierarchy, the way of leading… For me, with thirty students per class, it’s not not possible. I can’t lead every child, I don’t have enough hands. I’m going to meet them to introduce them to the fascinating world of bees and show their importance in nature and on plates.
How did you feel in the tent?
I felt really good there. It was a crazy adventure. I was called three days before my birthday, I was baking cakes. I didn’t believe it! It was a dream come true, it was a great adventure.
You still made Cyril Lignac taste your honey!
Yes and he loved it. It’s a moment I won’t forget. I think Mercotte tasted it too.
The Best Pastry Chef : Aurélie on the subject of Laëtitia Milot: “She’s a beautiful person, she has a good background“
What did you think of Laëtitia Milot in animation?
She is super nice, she has great advice. She told me: ‘Let go Aurélie’. It’s as if I’m putting barriers on myself, like a little girl who wants to do well. She cried when I cried, it was crazy! She’s a beautiful person, she has a good background.
What did you learn during this experience?
Focus more on myself, stop thinking about others. I want everyone to be well, and I forget myself.
How has the competition changed your daily life?
I’m not telling you about the honey orders with my company Miel et Gourmandises. I prepare boxes, and there we go. For the holidays, it’s great! And then, I find all my former students, even those from twenty years ago. It’s crazy! One of them said – I’m going to cry –: “If Madame Gérard is as good a pastry chef as a mistress, well, she will tear everything apart“. I only get messages like that and it’s great! In my village, they organized an evening to broadcast the show, and the profits from the evening are donated to Pink October. It’s great.
The Best Pastry Chef : Aurélie finds Dorothée in the second chance tent: “It’s more intimate and it suited me much more”
During the second chance test, you were facing Dorothée. What state of mind were you in?
I had taken a little more perspective. I didn’t have to start again like in the tent. I am a competitor! I didn’t approach it in the same way, it’s more intimate and it suited me much more.
Is there more or less pressure under this tent?
As I had done the first show, I had taken a step back. For me, it was less stressful. I was really into it, like I was baking at home. When I bake, I do it for my family and my friends and, there, I had forgotten this intention. In the tent, I suffered for Cyril and Mercotte, there was too much at stake. The second show suits me more.
Finally, you beat Dorothy! Did you expect this?
No, because she’s a really good pastry chef. She is rigorous, efficient and meticulous. It’s nothing! It’s bad luck.
