PASTRY CHEF INTERVIEW: Pascal Clair

Pastry chef Pascal Clair puts his hotel oven gloves down and decides it’s time to go solo. He speaks exclusively to Caterer Middle East prior to the launch of his first cafe in Dubai

After a string of successes working as a pastry chef in top-end hotels including Atlantis and the Ritz-Carlton Doha, Pascal Clair has decided it’s time to go solo.

His experiences have led him to front his first standalone cafe in Dubai, but, Clair tells Caterer Middle East, all credit is due to the sweet blood running through his family.

Brought up in France among a family of bakers Clair started his career working for his father’s bakery.

“My father is still one of my biggest influences,” he begins. “To this day, I follow the recipe for his bread; his croissants; brioche – all my recipes are based on his original recipes,” he says.

As he speaks to us in his new cafe based in the European Business Centre of Dubai Investment Park, trays filled with an array of brightly coloured macaroons and oozing with chocolates that glisten with a spectrum of coloured glitter dust are presented on the table before us.

“Of course the recipes are slightly retouched,” he continues, with an example. “French pastries in France use a lot of sugar, here I cut sugar – the pastries are tasty but with reduced sugar.”

We’re struggling to believe a cafe can be run unless fuelled by sugar, but Clair stresses that it’s important to look at what else can be your focus. He has gone for flavours that will get people talking instead of the extra sugar.

One of the flavours that will undoubtedly set tongues wagging is the coconut curry flavoured chocolate. One would be accurate in presuming the furthest many people’s chocolate experience goes is chilli chocolate.

It’s no surprise that the Caterer team was slightly hesitant when it came to trying this particular flavour. But, the strong taste of curry combined with the sweet balance of coconut, followed by the dark chocolate kick at the end were, admittedly, pleasantly surprising.

“It’s kind of a melting pot,” says Clair when asked about the influence of the flavours, which continue to get more unusual with lemongrass and ginger and fresh mint and strawberry.
“The chocolate has some Indian influence,” he adds.

But a lot of the influence he talks of has come through the experience he’s had working with some of the world’s top hotels, including Claridges of London and the people surrounding him.

He has a lot of inspiration, he tells us: “My first mentor who I did my apprenticeship with; my father for his bread of course; the big chefs in France such as Pierre Gagniere and the top, top elite chefs – all the guys who have been doing so much for the pastry business, helping it to grow and passed on their knowledge to the people.”

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And tradition he says is very important to him: “As a pastry chef I am very picky on tradition. It’s very easy to make pastry these days by just mixing powder. Here (at the cafe) that doesn’t exist. We do everything from scratch – we make our own bread – it takes more time but the result is much better.”

Clair has had gigs at Ritz-Carlton Doha, Shanghai and Japan as well having worked in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Macau. But Dubai is where he says he saw himself settling and predicted his first solo project would be conceived.

“With all respect for Europe, Europe is old. Asia was booming from the end the 80s to the mid 90s before the crash. Then everything moved to Dubai – Dubai slowed down but it is coming up again and you have everything you want in Dubai. It’s a new city and the people are lovely,” he says.

His 420sq/m dream kitchen feels fresh and new, with sparkling white walls and cold metal counter-tops.

“The kitchen has all been designed by me from A-Z,” says Clair. “I’ve been in the industry long enough to know how to foresee a project.”

But he’s realistic about its gradual growth as opposed to overnight success, especially with it being his first solo project: “In a retail mall, it’s magic, because you have everything, a cafe and a production site – we’re not expecting to make millions from the cafe, but expect to have our regular customers,” he says.

Once up and running, Clair expects a significant portion of revenue to come through tie-ups with major hotel chains, where, he hopes to supply his confectioneries. He’s currently proposing what this will look like, getting mock-ups of boxes which he can demonstrate to clients, but assures he is not rushing this aspect and wants to approach it properly.

Going solo is not going to be easy. This is something Clair is fully aware of: “It is challenging, nothing comes with a bucket of roses,” he says.

“Dubai is a place where when you want to establish yourself as standalone, it can be pretty tough because of the rules and regulations. At the same time it is very good – because everything is clear in terms of matters of hygiene, registration of trucks and drivers to municipality. The rules applied in Dubai are very good.”

What makes Clair’s cafe stand out is its quality and the reasonable prices.
“Three quarters of (our) ingredients are from France – a higher cost but nevertheless we are not going to kill the client because we want them to come back, so we are reasonably priced.

We want to be recognised as having quality and that everybody can approach us and come and buy something. We don’t just want one class of people coming over, we want everyone to come and enjoy what we do.

“It is me who is the chef, I am creating the recipe and I think those three things separate us from the competition. My thing would be quality standard all the time because I’ll be monitoring the quality of all the products that are coming out.”

To deliver this quality Clair has recruited his finest team of chefs from Indonesia and the Phillipines, many of whom he has worked with before.

“They know they are coming to work with the devil, but they love it. Like I said – hard work pays and I intend to make them understand that they are not in office work which is completely different.

They are working with different circumstances where people are going to order something right now and you have to stop what you are doing to deliver, right now.”
That’s important he reiterates. Finding a dedicated team of kitchen staff in this day and age is highly challenging.

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“Most of the people that apply come because they need to work. If you are not driven by passion, don’t come and work for this kind of industry because it is long hours, a lot of headaches. It is all about the love you put in that keeps you doing it.”

Being a good teacher is key to driving that passion. About 6-7 of his students are working as chefs in hotels across Dubai.

“It’s a great achievement to be able to pass on your knowledge to people,” he says.
While his career highlight has been being able to be part of the Atlantis opening he believes there are many more to come.

“Today, having my name on the window of the store is a something I feel thrilled about. I never expected I would have my own shop in Dubai – one of the major cities in the world,” he says.

“Even though we are a little remote, I believe in the future we will have a chain of cafes in Dubai. This is more of our showcase and production but we are looking to expand into Jumeirah and other areas.”

Responding to whether he hopes to have conquered other areas in the region over the next five years, Clair says jokingly: “I hope so otherwise I quit!”

“We are fully operational today for exporting, we are definitely looking at opportunities in Qatar and Saudi, but one step at a time, we want to move smartly,” he says. But he’s keeping open-minded to whatever opportunities may arise in future.

“I think now is the time to settle down. I don’t know – say if somebody comes along tomorrow and says ‘ok we will buy you out and make a chain’ - I’ll say ‘ok let’s go!’

“You have to be open to opportunity. Pascal Clair is flexible, even more flexible than bamboo,” he says.

If you want to be successful you have to go more in that direction rather than just focus on what you want to sell.”