(VOVworld) - It’s not an exaggeration to say French people have spent centuries perfecting the art of pastry for nothing: France nowadays owns one of the most popular and refined pastry cultures in the world. Just a bite of French Vanilla Crème Brûlée, Berries Tart or Lemon Soufflé can elevate the whole heavy meal and turn it into a symphony of delicious taste. Today we have a talk with pastry chef Silen of O’Douceurs, one of the two rare authentic French bakeries in Hanoi, about this tempting topic.

Crème Brûlée - a traditional dessert of France. (Source: wikipedia)

Q: Silen, first of all, thank you so much for joining us on air.  I must admit that I was stunned by the delicious smell and look of all the cakes you’ve got here. So what gave you inspiration and motivation to open a French bakery shop like this in Hanoi?

A: Opening my own shop has always been a dream. Some people they wake up one day and they love football, some people they love politics, some people they love reading, I just love making cakes (laugh)! Since I was very young, I wanted to pastry chef. I’ve worked for many years and I first come to Hanoi in 2012 because of love. I met my wife who is Vietnamese.  We started to look for a place, we started to put everything, the project on paper, find a name. And two years later we opened our shop.

Q: Well I know the French dessert culture is one of the finest and most famous dessert cultures but I was very confused: What includes and does not include in dessert? As a pastry chef, can you tell me a little bit about how to define that term?

A: A dessert in France can be what? It can be anything we eat when we finish the main course. A dessert is not a must to be sweet. Most of the time, yes for two reasons: because it’s safe to your body that by the end of the meal you finish with something sweet. Second, it’s a tradition. As in Vietnam, they may not have the budget to buy cake everyday. The dessert can be a fruit and for that, we are not different. I remembered going to Hai Duong and finished the meal with a kilo of lychee. This is a dessert; we eat fruits as a dessert. We can eat some bread and some jam as a dessert, as we can eat for breakfast.  So a dessert does not need to be a cake or represent sweet, no.

Q: Can you divide different types of French dessert into categories?

A: Of course, first there is the dessert that you can find in restaurant, which is the dessert you cannot really bring home. We called it plated dessert, it can be cold, can be hot.  Actually I found the people in Hanoi love lava cake.  And then you have the cake that you can bring home so that you can eat alone or for sharing. In these two categories there are many, many categories.  You have cake baked with fruits, with chocolate, with cream and a lot of butter. You have the tarts, you have the traditional cakes that you find in any bakery in France: the éclair, the choux. But when you learn how to make dessert or learn how to eat dessert, you will put cakes into different categories yourself: the sweet, not-too-sweet, the one you like, the one you don’t like, the one you want to eat a second one straight away, the one you never want to eat again.

The making of French Éclair. Souce: Americasteskitchenfeed

Q: What are the most significant features of French sweet culture? What distinguish it with other dessert cultures, let’s say Italian for example?

A: People say gastronomy comes from France, which is nice for French to hear but that does not mean other countries do not cook. Everywhere there is a level of cookery and doing cakes.  For example you go to every hotel in Hanoi, their head pastry chefs are all Vietnamese and they are doing pastry with Vietnamese taste at very good level. For France, we may have started it at high level but now a lot of people took it and transform it, which is great.

Q: Which gender do you better at cooking and baking? Male or female?

A: This depends on your point of view. I don't want to say male or female is better. I’ve worked with people who are passionate about pastry. Whoever they are, they are good because that’s what they want to do. I’ve worked with people who become a pastry chef because they did not have a chance to do something else. Whoever they are they are not good because they don’t do it with passion. I work better with women. I noticed that in Vietnam, it’s more difficult for me to be listened and followed by young men. They are more willing to show you what they’ve got while women are willing to learn. My staff, I don't care if they make mistake, I don't care if they are boys or girls, if they show me the passion, I will show them things more and more.

Q: So in your opinion, passion is the basic principle to be come a chef?

A: Yes!

Delicious French desserts at O'Douceurs. Source: O'Douceurs Official Facebook page

Q: One more question: What do you think of the role dessert culture play in the overall French culture?

A: You know some people cannot finish a meal without a dessert. The name of our shop ‘O’Douceurs’ means sweetness. ‘Douceurs’ is the word used most of the time now by old people in France for I want to have a small dessert - ‘petit douceurs’. It sounds lighter than to say ‘I am going to take a dessert’ (laugh). Dessert is very important. You go to France you can find in a very, very small street you can find two or three bakery shops and they all works well because it’s a culture. In France we like good things but any good things in the world is not good for you. Vegetables are not so, so good to eat but very good for your body. Sugar, chocolate and butter are not good for your body but delicious to eat.  If my customers come everyday then I might have to find contacts of a dentist, you know (laugh)!

Q: Wow, those are all amazing stories and facts that I have not known about. Again, Silen thank you so much for the lovely talk today and I hope that both you and the bakery will do well in the future.

If you want to know more about the shop and our lovely pastry chef here, please come to O’Douceurs at 91A Tran Hung Dao street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi or visit the shop on Facebook. That’s it for this week. I am Dieu Ha and I will see you next time!