The king of the French Pastry, Chef Pierre Erme, visited the city of Sofia to lead a master class in contemporary pastry last weekend. He was invited by the French Institute in Bulgaria, as the event was in the frame of the Month of the Francophonie, which usually is celebrated in March.
On March 9th, five young Bulgarian pastry chefs, selected in advance by “Relais Desserts”, participated in a competition in which they had to prepare cakes by using French techniques and at least three traditional Bulgarian ingredients for 4 hours.
Among them was Kristina Dimitrova – a 3rd year CAI student, who impressed the jury and participants with another culinary masterpiece, only few days after winning the silver medal for Best Young Pastry Chef at a prestigious international competition in Thessaloniki. She presented an entremet cake, sticking to the main topic “Bulgarian ingredients and French techniques”. The elements were chocolate genoise, apple compote geleé, yogurt crèmeux with crispy almond meringue, kozunak layer with rakia syrup, lavender geleé and spelt mousse. The cake was glazed with white chocolate mirror glaze and covered with milk and savory veil. The decoration was made of white chocolate, lavender and edible silver.
It is important to note that Kristina was the only student among the prominent Bulgarian pastry chefs with experience in elite restaurants.
Chef Pierre Hermé is the fourth generation in an Alsatian pastry chefs’ family. In 2016, he was announced as the best Pastry Chef in the „World’s 50 Best Restaurants“ ranking and called “The King of Macarons” and “the Picasso of Pastry” by Vogue magazine. In 1998, he established his Maison Pierre Hermé Paris together with his business partner Charles Znaty.
Pierre Hermé became internationally famous for the sweet meringue-based confection “macarons”, which he started to make in 1976. He significantly enriched the filling and developed them to such an extent that nowadays the taste of macarons is considered to be an endless field of possibilities for the development of creativity.
