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Tucked away in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris is a confectionery shop unlike any other.

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It's home to some of the most artistic, delectable and unusual sugary treats, straight from the imagination of Pierre Herme.

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Dubbed "The Picasso of Pastry" by French Vogue, he's known for his mastery of the macaron.

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Fusing unusual flavors, he continues to transform this traditional French dessert into little drops of edible luxury.

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Beyond his creativity, he also sets himself apart by approaching his craft with the mindset of a high-end fashion designer,

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releasing his product in seasons and creating haute couture delicacies for select customers.

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Today, his multimillion-dollar epicurean empire stretches across the globe from Paris to Tokyo and most recently to Hong Kong,

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where his macarons are being devoured despite costing almost $3 each.

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This week on Talk Asia,

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we take a culinary journey with Pierre Herme

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and discover how the son of an Alsatian baker became the first pastry chef to be awarded France's highest honor.

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I have to say, it's gonna be very difficult to be unbiased because I am a huge dessert lover.

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That is my weakness. And it seems as though it is the guilty pleasure of many people, no more so than those in Asia.

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What do you think it is about les macarons, or the French pastries, that Asians seem to love?

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For the macaron, probably it's because it's just one or two bites.

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You feel... you know, you don't feel [you are] having a lot of food, just [a] little bite.

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And in a macaron, you can have a lot of taste and the taste combination and then texture combination.

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It's just that one bite, isn't it, that is an explosion of flavor?

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And it seems as though you've also had a lot of inspiration from Asia when it comes to the kind of flavor combinations.

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The inspiration is coming from everywhere.

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So it could be a conversation between us, could be an ingredient, could be something I read.

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Inspiration, it's often in the air.

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When I started to work in pastry, that was in the mid '70s,

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I learned to make macaron, but it was only vanilla, raspberry, coffee and chocolate.

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And it was just two biscuits with a little bit [of] filling inside.

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So, I didn't like the macaron very much.

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I understand that what it gives the taste to the macaron is the filling, so I decided to have more filling.

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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.

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Macaron[s] was really [an] empty field.

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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.

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What's interesting also about your products, they're treated like jewels.

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You also present them like collections every season.

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Yes. When we started a company with Charles Znaty, who is my partner, we didn't want to create a pastry shop.

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We had ambition to create a luxury brand in the pastry field.

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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.

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We take care on the boutique, how the boutique looks. And we are very concerned about the service.

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For me, it's very important. It's part also of what is a luxury brand.

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What is it, do you think, you would want people to know about Pierre Herme,

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not the brand, but about the person behind it?

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What do you want people to feel and to know about who you are?

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That I make good cake. That's the only thing important.

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That's an understatement.