From devotion to crafting the purest form of mille-feuille to the everyday joy of an impeccably baked baguette, inspiring pleasure is Frédéric's raison d'être.
Maxime Frédéric's glittering career through the grand Palace [a government rating for hotels that go beyond five stars] hotels of Paris has firmly established his name, shaped by collaborations with some of the world's most influential chefs, from Cédric Grolet to Arnaud Donckele.
But it's not just prestigious names and mentorships that have defined his rise. He has relentlessly deconstructed the great French patisserie classics – from the Saint-Honoré to the Paris-Brest – only to meticulously rebuild and refine them to their purest, most exquisite forms. This obsessive attention to detail has earned him widespread acclaim, particularly for his signature mille-feuille at Le Tout-Paris: a benchmark of excellence and simplicity.
Frédéric's award-winning mille-feuille took three years to perfect
Frédéric's passion lies in life's everyday pleasures, bringing daily joys to his community through a perfect croissant or an impeccably baked baguette. This deep-rooted love for the craft led him to open neighbourhood bakery Pleincœur in Paris' Batignolles district, where the output is rooted in accessible excellence.
After being crowned The World's Best Pastry Chef 2025, sponsored by Sosa, Frédéric reflects on the pivotal moments that shaped his journey as a baker, patissier and chocolatier.
Practice makes pastry
"My childhood was spent cooking and baking on my grandparents' farm in Normandy. There just always seemed to be a pretext for making a yogurt, apple or chocolate cake. In the early days, my grandmother would sit my cousins and I on the counter, feet dangling in the sink, to mix the batter. We'd make a terrible mess, but it didn't matter. I think those moments are the reason I became a baker, patissier and chocolatier. Something just clicked."
Rice pudding
"My grandparents kept dairy cows, and we were lucky enough to have fresh milk every single day. It meant I cooked with milk a lot. We would make la teurgoule, a traditional local dessert. It's basically an oven-baked, cinnamon-flavoured rice pudding. Milk-based desserts were fundamental in the early days of my cooking."
Inspired by memories on his grandparents' farm in Normandy, Frédéric's creations prioritise quality produce
Ready steady bake
"I was obsessed with cooking shows growing up. I loved Bon Appétit Bien Sûr with Joel Robuchon and the Gourmet TV channel. Watching these incredible chefs and the amazing houses they worked in urged me to do the same, even though no one else in my family was in the business – they were all farmers!"
The right ingredients
"I told my parents I wanted to be a boulanger-patissier before heading to secondary school. I don't think I really understood what it represented, but I dreamed of being a chef-patissier in a Palace. I was just so attracted to the ecosystem, the universe, the teamwork, and above all, the sheer creativity of it all. At the end of the day, all chefs use the same base ingredients – a handful of flour, an egg and sugar – but the things we make are all completely different."
A piping dream
"I completed my CAP patisserie training, then went from being an apprentice in a small village bakery to living the dream in Paris: I got a job at Le Meurice. I was Cédric Grolet's right-hand man for four years, before being appointed to my first chef gig at George V... And now I've been with Cheval Blanc for six years. But it still feels like just the beginning!"
Le Vacherin
"The dessert which really made its mark on my early career was my vacherin. It has individual meringue petals on top placed in the form of a rose. My grandmother was called Rosa and I always enjoyed making chocolate petals and sugar roses. So, when I started creating my first dessert, I knew it had to be flower shaped. It's an homage to my origins and to my grandparents. A version of it is still on the menu at Plénitude."
Beautifully crafted roses are found in varying forms on Plénitude's menu
Cracking cacao
"At Plénitude, I work closely with head chef Arnaud Donckele. We just speak the same language. When we were first starting, we talked a lot about the sauces and how we'd link his cooking with my dishes. The dessert which exemplifies the fusion of our ways of working is the cacao-based pudding we have. It's flower-shaped and composed of different flavoured chocolate, with varied textures and accompanied by a fondant sauce, mousse and a dollop of ice cream.
Million-dollar mille-feuille
"I spent three years, and I really mean three years, perfecting my mille-feuille. It's won lots of awards. What's special about it is the combination of its uniqueness and its simplicity. It follows the lines and rules of a classic mille-feuille: pastry, cream and that's it. But it's obviously much more than that. It's indulgent but light, and you can really taste the butter and the sugar."
Classics, remastered
"At Le Tout-Paris restaurant we serve French patisserie classics, brasserie-style. There's a profiterole, a Paris-Brest, a mille-feuille, a Saint Honoré, a Charlotte... but with each, as well as a touch of love, there's a singularity. I am just obsessed with reworking classics. Not revisiting them or changing them or adding a 'twist', but really reworking them from scratch and perfecting them in their purest form. It's about being in the emotion of the dessert and somehow also slightly next to it."
The team at Plénitude, where Frédéric works with head chef Arnaud Donckele on the Sweet Fragrances section of the Symphony menu
Local heroes
"I opened Pleincœur bakery last year with five of my nearest and dearest, including my wife, Claire. It's a return to my first loves: products that a proper village bakery serves – daily bread, pastries, cakes, chocolates and our own coffee from Bolivia. We bake with our own eggs from Normandy and serve coffee from the farm in Bolivia. We've just opened a new workshop around the corner with a focus on hazelnuts and cacao, all home grown. We'll be starting masterclasses soon."
It's beginning to look a lot like...
"I work across a lot of projects, but the four Cheval Blanc Paris restaurants: Hakuba, Le Tout-Paris, Langosteria and Plénitude are my focus day-to-day. We're preparing for Christmas at the moment [In August], working up our galette des rois [king cake] and the Bûche De Noël [yule log]. I'm also training up my teams with love. But wherever I am, whether I'm plating up desserts at Plénitude or making a baguette at Pleincœur, I love it all the same. It's about bringing happiness to people, be it everyday joys, like fresh bread, or unique pleasures during important moments in peoples' lives in the Cheval Blanc restaurants."
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