The Picasso of pastry
Pierre Hermé
Pierre Hermé is the pastry chef who made flavour the subject: the Ispahan of rose, lychee and raspberry, the macaron as a collection, and a house with boutiques from Paris to Tokyo.
- Currently
- Pierre Hermé Paris
- City
- Paris
Born in 1961 into four generations of Alsatian bakers, Hermé apprenticed with Gaston Lenôtre at fourteen, led the pastry kitchens of Fauchon and Ladurée, and opened his own house in 1998, first in Tokyo, then in 2001 on the rue Bonaparte in Paris. His idea was to treat pastry like haute couture: seasonal collections, signature flavour pairings, a name on the box. The Ispahan, a rose macaron with lychee and raspberry, is the most copied dessert of the last thirty years; the macaron collections, from Mogador to Infiniment Vanille, made the macaron a luxury good.
Hermé was named the world’s best pastry chef in 2016 and has written the reference books of the craft. His house has boutiques in Paris, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai and beyond, and a chocolate line of its own.
He is the pastry chef other pastry chefs cite first: the one who gave the craft a vocabulary of flavour.
The path
- 1976
Apprentice with Gaston Lenôtre at fourteen
- 1998
Opens his first boutique in Tokyo
- 2001
Rue Bonaparte, Paris
- 2016
Named world’s best pastry chef
- 2024
Boutiques in more than a dozen cities
Signature desserts
Pierre Hermé
Where to taste the work
