Tucked away in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris is a confectionery shop unlike any other.
It's home to some of the most artistic, delectable and unusual sugary treats, straight from the imagination of Pierre Herme.
Dubbed "The Picasso of Pastry" by French Vogue, he's known for his mastery of the macaron.
Fusing unusual flavors, he continues to transform this traditional French dessert into little drops of edible luxury.
Beyond his creativity, he also sets himself apart by approaching his craft with the mindset of a high-end fashion designer,
releasing his product in seasons and creating haute couture delicacies for select customers.
Today, his multimillion-dollar epicurean empire stretches across the globe from Paris to Tokyo and most recently to Hong Kong,
where his macarons are being devoured despite costing almost $3 each.
This week on Talk Asia,
we take a culinary journey with Pierre Herme
and discover how the son of an Alsatian baker became the first pastry chef to be awarded France's highest honor.
I have to say, it's gonna be very difficult to be unbiased because I am a huge dessert lover.
That is my weakness. And it seems as though it is the guilty pleasure of many people, no more so than those in Asia.
What do you think it is about les macarons, or the French pastries, that Asians seem to love?
For the macaron, probably it's because it's just one or two bites.
You feel... you know, you don't feel [you are] having a lot of food, just [a] little bite.
And in a macaron, you can have a lot of taste and the taste combination and then texture combination.
It's just that one bite, isn't it, that is an explosion of flavor?
And it seems as though you've also had a lot of inspiration from Asia when it comes to the kind of flavor combinations.
The inspiration is coming from everywhere.
So it could be a conversation between us, could be an ingredient, could be something I read.
Inspiration, it's often in the air.
When I started to work in pastry, that was in the mid '70s,
I learned to make macaron, but it was only vanilla, raspberry, coffee and chocolate.
And it was just two biscuits with a little bit [of] filling inside.
So, I didn't like the macaron very much.
I understand that what it gives the taste to the macaron is the filling, so I decided to have more filling.
Since [For] 30 years, I create[d] a lot of flavor[s] -- lemon, rose, caramel, pistachio -- and different texture, different sensation when you eat the macaron.
Macaron[s] was really [an] empty field.
So when I started to work on macaron, I felt that it I have a lot of possibility to create macaron because it was just a few tastes.
What's interesting also about your products, they're treated like jewels.
You also present them like collections every season.
Yes. When we started a company with Charles Znaty, who is my partner, we didn't want to create a pastry shop.
We had ambition to create a luxury brand in the pastry field.
So for a luxury brand, you have... you take care also of the product first, because the product is central and after also, we take care on the packaging.
We take care on the boutique, how the boutique looks. And we are very concerned about the service.
For me, it's very important. It's part also of what is a luxury brand.
What is it, do you think, you would want people to know about Pierre Herme,
not the brand, but about the person behind it?
What do you want people to feel and to know about who you are?
That I make good cake. That's the only thing important.
That's an understatement.