You know you’re an innovator when everyone copies what you do. When Dominique Ansel debuted the Cronut—a hybrid croissant and doughnut—in 2013, it launched a global craze and a number of imitators. While the crowds still line up outside of his eponymous bakery in New York, the pastry savant has continued to produce new concepts that also have built devoted followings.
“There’s no real pressure of creating the next big thing,” says Ansel, 37. Yet he has been a reliable partner at events, creating desserts specifically for special occasions. At this year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami Beach, Ansel showed up to a late-night dessert party with chocolate oysters served with a pineapple mignonette and a spicy raspberry hot sauce. He debuted his now-famous milk-and-cookie shot at a party at South by Southwest in 2014. The treat consists of a chocolate chip cookie molded into a shot glass, lined with a thin coating of chocolate, and served with fresh vanilla-infused milk.
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It’s a surprisingly humble dessert from the French chef, who spent six years as the executive pastry chef at Daniel in New York and led international expansion of the French bakery Fauchon. The experience, though, prepared him for his own expansion. He opened a new concept, Dominique Ansel Kitchen, in New York’s West Village in April, plus a bakery in Tokyo in June.
To continually surprise new and returning customers, Ansel’s team brainstorms daily, with as many as 30 new ideas under development in the kitchen at one time. Inspiration can come from anywhere and can start from something as simple as a shape or a color. At a Brussels farmer’s market, Ansel noticed the purple hue of a piece of fruit and from there created a tart using blackberry, plum, and other fall fruits.
Organic inspiration helps him avoid trends—like the ubiquitous bacon that for a while seemed to be in every dessert. Ansel wasn’t a fan. “I don’t want to use ingredients because they are popular,” he says. “If there’s no meaning or thought behind it, there’s no point. You are better leading a trend than following a trend.”
The copycats may not be able to keep up: Ansel says his goal is to keep surprising dessert lovers with new ideas. “We want to show people what pastry could be in 50 years from now.”
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