Guest Chef Demonstration with Joël Defives MOF
On 3rd March we hosted a very special demonstration with master boulanger Joël Defives MOF. Chef Joël is Executive Chef of La Boulangerie in Paris, which is owned by Thierry Marx and he holds the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France Boulanger.
Chef Joël has wanted to be a boulangère since childhood and has seen a big change for the better in the profession. Bakers no longer need to bake at night and the ingredients available are much higher quality and therefore what they bake tastes much better and there is freedom to be creative. Chef Joël has cooked for some impressive names, including French President Emmanuel Macron, for whom he prepared the traditional French dish for the Epiphany – the Galette des Rois. In 2004 he was awarded with the Meilleur Ouvrier de France Boulanger, which identifies him has one of France’s best craftsmen.
The demonstration was held in partnership with Andros, who make high quality, all-natural fruit fillings. Their Andros Chef range is specifically created for professional chefs, and Chef Joël had created recipes to showcase the performance of these fillings. Chef Joël demonstrated ten recipes in total including a raspberry brioche, strawberry corolla, apple swirl, salted butter caramel brioche, apricot croissant, cherry hedgehog, strawberry itinerant, apple tatin bite and cherry basque cake. All of the recipes utilise the delicious fruit flavours of the Andros ingredients to create exciting versions of classic dishes.
Chef Joël stuck to basic techniques for his demonstration, using simpler recipes to inspire guests to come up with other ideas for innovative creations. Chef Joël had some expert advice for one recipe in particular: the apple tarte tatin bite, which he specified that a pink lady apple is the best variety for this dish, and we’re sure he knows best! Guests to the demonstration enjoyed tasting all of the beautiful dishes prepared by Chef Joël and left inspired by his fantastic demonstration of skill.
To learn skills like those demonstrated by Chef Joël Defives visit our boulangerie page.
