2016 World’s 50 Best Restaurants Ceremony

Pierre Hermé, who once said that he can ‘’tell a good pastry chef by the sparkle in his eye when he speaks about his craft’’, entered into the world of pastry, at the age of fourteen, as an apprentice of the great Gaston Lenôtre. He continued his career at a number of famous brands, notably Fauchon where he was Head Pastry Chef for eleven years until in 1998 La Maison Pierre Hermé was created.  He revolutionized pastry-making with regard to taste and modernity and was called "the Picasso of Pastry” by the US Vogue.

Best known for his delicious macaron, pioneering new techniques and creating daring flavour combinations including Pedro Ximénez and raisin; olive oil and vanilla; and fig and foie gras, Pierre Hermé once stated that ‘’pleasure is his only guide”. He prefers discreet pastry decors, uses "sugar like salt, in other words, as a seasoning to heighten other shades of flavour" and refuses to sit on his laurels. He is constantly revising his own work, exploring new taste territories and revisiting his own recipes.