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Macarons: How The Gems Of French Pastry Seduced The World

Pierre Herme creates about 10 new flavors of macarons every year
Pierre Herme creates about 10 new flavors of macarons every year
Christian Lienhardt

COLMAR – The world’s love affair with French macarons is here to stay.

In order to meet global demands, the pastry chef who made macarons famous, Pierre Hermé, is about to step up production in the factory where most of his macarons are created – always by hand.

“The goal is to triple production from 150 to 450 tons per year by 2015-2017,” says Colette Pétremant, the factory’s director of operations. The factory, located in Alsace, in northeastern France, employs 58 people. This is where a whole collection of luxury chocolates and cakes are produced.

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The Pierre Hermé shop in Paris - Photo: Vincent Bourdon / GNU

But mostly, it is here that since 2008 an incredible variety of macarons are manufactured, like for instance, the famous “Celeste” macaron: passion fruit, rhubarb and strawberry. Around ten new flavors are created every year.

Even though Hermé – the “Picasso of Pastry,” as it is dubbed – creates all his new flavors in his laboratory in Paris, he is often in Alsace, the land of his ancestors. Since 1850, there have been four generations of Hermé bakers and pastry chefs in Colmar.

The macaron factory is located in Wittenheim, a suburb of Mulhouse, the second largest city in the Alsace region. Hermé’s expansion project is part of the economic revitalization of this region, and for this he was awarded a grant of 160,000 euros.

Hermé created 20 new jobs thanks to the grant, helping workers from the local embattled textile and printing industry to reconvert to the food industry.

An incredible variety - Photo: Pierre Hermé Paris Facebook page

Pastry chefs were also hired, some coming from the other side of France, all hoping for a chance to work with Hermé.

Regarding facilities, the company will not be expanding its buildings. “We already have an area of 2400 square meters, which should be enough to triple our production volume,” explains Pétremant.

The factory contributes to 70% of the turnover of the company, which yielded 45 million euros in 2012. Pierre Hermé has stores in France, Japan, the UK, and a newly opened store in Dubai. This year they are also launching in Hong Kong and Qatar.

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food / travel

When Racism Poisons Italy's Culinary Scene

This is the case of chef Mareme Cisse, a black woman, who was called a slur after a couple found out that she was the one who would be preparing their meal.

Photo of Mareme Cisse cooking

Mareme Cisse in the kitchen of Ginger People&Food

Caterina Suffici

-Essay-

TURIN — Guess who's not coming to dinner. It seems like a scene from the American Deep South during the decades of segregation. But this happened in Italy, in this summer of 2023.

Two Italians, in their sixties, got up from the restaurant table and left (without saying goodbye, as the owner points out), when they declared that they didn't want to eat in a restaurant where the chef was what they called: an 'n-word.'

Racists, poor things. And ignorant, in the sense of not knowing basic facts. They don't realize that we are all made of mixtures, come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. And that food, of course, are blends of different ingredients and recipes.

The restaurant is called Ginger People&Food, and these visitors from out of town probably didn't understand that either.

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