Epiphany. Here is the secret of the Breton almond pancake champion!

Published: 9:58 a.m. – Modified: 10:12 a.m. by Dolorès CHARLES

This year, it was a baker-pastry chef from Finistère who won the title of Brittany champion for the best almond pancake, awarded by the Bakery Federation. Victor Lerouge is employed at “La P’tite Boulange“, in the center of Lesneven, and accustomed to excellence: he has also been the French pastries champion for several months.

The secret of the champion of Brittany

Victor signs a haute couture galette des rois, but what makes the difference? My secret is “love and passion is to please customers, and you must already start with good raw materials : red label flour, AOP butter, only good raw materials to have an exceptional product at the end.”

After “there is the know-how. We have to test current flours because all flours change: they have more or less strength… We also do frangipane tests, to get the taste of the power of the almond from the beginning to the roundness at the end These have been tests and tests of pancakes since September, we have been doing them at least once or twice a week!”

Credit : Yann Launay

To make a good almond pancake, according to Victor, you need good products, technique, but also taking the time. “The traditional pancake that we make here takes between three and four days to make. We can’t make it from one day to the next. It’s relaxing to have something very round and very voluminous , with taste.

Large stores do not have our level

All the manufacturing steps are important and take time: “there is a manufacturing step every 6 hours, or even more. When we see the supermarkets which offer pancakes at low prices, the difference comes down to that: the raw materials and the know-how. The supermarkets can’t reach the level we have. There are a lot of people who buy their bread easily in supermarkets, but they have difficulty buying galette des rois in supermarkets because it is not at all the same quality. “

The manager of “La P’tite Boulange“, Mickaël Gouverlen, is proud of his employee, especially since Victor was also his apprentice. While the competition is tough, around the galettes des rois, this distinction should boost sales in January.

It gets people talking and people come for the cake…

The effects are already being felt:We said we would start the cake on January 2, and we had to start on December 26 because we had a lot of people. It gets people talking and people come for the cake. We had to invest a little, we made two teams. There is a team in the morning, and a team in the afternoon to make the cake for the next day… Last year, we made 800 cakes and this year, we will maybe make 2,000 to 2,500 cakes !”

Credit : Yann Launay

Cakes will often be a little more expensive this year, always linked to energy prices, wages and the increase in the price of raw materials. Mickaël Gourvelen had to resolve to increase the selling price while seeking to remain accessible to as many people as possible. “Tout increased: butter is expensive, eggs are expensive, etc. We were forced to increase prices, but we increased prices reasonably. The cake of six costs €25, however we were forced to reduce to just one size of cake and that makes our lives easier.”

On average, a frangipane king cake for 6 people sells for between 20 and 30 euros in artisanal bakeries, between 4 and 12 euros for industrial pancakes sold in supermarkets.

Finally, this is not the end of the adventure for Victor Lerouge, who will represent Brittany in the national championship for the best almond pancake, at the end of this year 2025.