The Art of French Pastry

Backgrounder on Pascal's Patisserie — Take & Bake French Pastries — new local artisanal business in Calgary poised to take advantage of the national Take & Bake trend in convenience natural foods. (File size: 461K)

Have you ever wondered why French pastry seems to have such mystique? Read "Art of French Pastry" and learn what makes French Pastry so different.

Here are a few excerpts:

• It's hard to find
  Good French pastry is hard to find. Why? Because genuine, good French pastry is very difficult to make. It takes time, talent, and a certain reverence for its tradition. The Pastry Chef must know the principles of bread making like a Baker but also has to know about... [read more]
• It's simple but difficult to make
  Pastry recipes themselves are simple: it's the dealing with living matter that is difficult and subject to a whole host of influences - making consistency and standardization difficult to constantly achieve. It is an act of... [read more]
• It's alchemy
  Each time Pascal makes a fresh batch of pastry dough, he has to measure everything very carefully and guided by his experience and intuition, adjusts times and amounts accordingly – each and every time. Is it a hot day? Is it dry or humid? Should the dough... [read more]
• It's wholesome and natural
  Pascal uses only natural ingredients - no artificial chemicals or stabilizers to shortcut the process, ensure cookie-cutter uniformity, generate industrial quantities or artificially extend the shelf-life of the product. He has figured out how to bring butter beyond... [read more]
• It's accessible through technology
  What makes Pascal's pastries even more unique is how he has made his classic French pastry accessible to pastry lovers everywhere by using technology to share his gift of nearly 20 years of pastry-making expertise. Technology is used to freeze and vacuum-seal the unbaked pastries... [read more]
• It's for everybody
  Being able to take the French Pastry Chef out of the Patisserie and into the homes of people who love French pastry is more than just convenient. It gives people the opportunity to directly appreciate... [read more]
• It's value
  As we all know, even artisanal 'average' is always better than industrial anything. Pascal's pastries represent the very best of artisanal excellence. And value? People routinely spend over $100.00 for dinner for two. But at around... [read more]
• It has history
  People have said that Pascal's pastries are as good as the best they've had in France. And
  lately, people are saying that they are even better. Viennoiserie, the specific type of pastries that Pascal makes, was introduced to Paris... [read more]
• It's not engineered
  Like everything we eat, French pastry did not escape the mass mechanization of food production. Most commercially baked goods are made with hydrogenated fat... [read more]
• It's an art
  Pascal's Patisserie take and bake French pastries are very unique and special. With no real pastry culture in Calgary and not a lot of information readily available about the fascinating and complex history of French pastry, a true artisanal story... [read more]