CEDRIC GROLET MAKES A LOT of dough.

He’s a famous pastry chef after all, with eight million followers on Instagram and millions more on TikTok who can’t seem to get enough of his creatively instructional baking videos. The appetite for pastries at Cedric Grolet stores – two in Paris and another in London – is equally impressive.

Grolet is also executive pastry chef at Le Meurice in Paris, where his desserts are featured attractions at the hotel’s two-star Alain Ducasse restaurant. He enjoys the kind of recognition reserved for A-list celebrities. Now, in something of a cake-world coup, his eponymous patisserie-cafe opened on Sep 14 in Singapore.

Cedric Grolet Singapore occupies a prime spot at the COMO Group’s new multi-concept flagship, COMO Orchard. Be prepared to queue for your croissant.

Rise to fame

Despite his meteoric rise and jaw-dropping Insta-fame, Grolet, 38, confesses to being shy by nature. As a young boy, he spent hours hiding out in the cellar of his grandparents’ bistro near Saint-Etienne in east-central France. He’d serve drinks to customers before taking refuge downstairs, letting his imagination roam free amid the comforting smells and textures of the storage room.

The road to being a patissier started with an apprenticeship at 13. At 21, Grolet moved to Paris to work at gourmet food company Fauchon, where he quickly rose through the ranks. “There’s no more hiding now – the walls are torn down,” says Grolet, speaking through an interpreter. “It’s incredible what’s been happening to me and also my peers in the world of pastry and gastronomy.”

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Grolet describes himself as a head coach overseeing his team of pastry players.

“We each have a role to play, the goal is to leave the customers happy and having a good time. If I do everything myself, I won’t have such a critical eye, so it’s better to make the team shine.” He adds: “The game happens every day. If today is good, we learn from today and tomorrow is better.”

Grolet’s stores are labelled boutiques for good reason. In London, Cedric Grolet at The Berkeley features an elegant tea lounge and an adjoining takeout section. There’s also a chef’s counter where customers can sample an eight-course tasting menu for the equivalent of about S$250. Signature croissants – puffy and delicate, finely-layered and feather-like – are priced at about S$10 each. More elaborate pastries are upwards of $20. And yes, the stream of customers is constant.

Passion for fruit

Grolet’s reputation was built on a series of hyper-real fruit desserts, made to look just like fruits such as lemon, apricot or strawberry, with fillings of cream, ganache and poached fruits.

“I didn’t eat candy as a kid and my mother gave me fruits as snacks, so I was always more familiar with fruits,” he says. “The first fruit I worked with was a cherry but after the end of the season I began to experiment with citrus fruits.”

He sought to reduce the level of sugar in his creations while retaining the natural flavour of the fruit. “At Fauchon I did a lot of chocolate sculptures which were pretty but couldn’t be eaten, so the idea came to sculpt fruits.”

The fascination with turning fruit into edible art was the basis for his first book (aptly titled Fruits) as well as his first standalone store, located around the corner from Le Meurice. Grolet didn’t have to look far for inspiration. “My mother’s favourite things are fruits and flowers,” he says. In 2019, he opened a second store, in the stately Opera District, and published a second cookbook, Flowers.

The awards, the accolades and the accompanying success have been great motivators, but Grolet remains laser-focused on facing new challenges. “For me, it’s about hard work, I sacrificed a lot, including my private life. I’m blessed with creativity, and a bit of luck also,” he says. “My family and the chefs who mentored me taught me to respect values. The people I’ve met during my career have kept me grounded. There are so many good patisserie chefs in the world, and you need to be more than a good chef.”

His basic approach is defined by the phrase “La solution est la creation”, says Grolet. No translation required. “I had lots of ideas when I first started, and I’ve been doing this for a long time. Every year, the idea is to do better. I want clients to ask, ‘How did he do that?’” He adds: “When I first started, everyone was doing the same thing, using moulds to make shapes. We have so many forms in nature that are beautiful. The goal is to be more and more pure.”

Singapore store

Don’t expect a typical pastry shop experience in Singapore. “In our stores there is no traditional display case, we don’t have all the pastries lined up,” he says. “In the past, technology was not so advanced. Now we have fridges, we reduce the amount of sugar, the pastries are more fragile. The pastries I make are very complicated, we are at a higher level. We are very conscious about sustainability and it’s important that we don’t throw anything away – it’s been five years since I threw away a pastry.”

He continues: “I want to play in the world of artisanal pastry, not industrial pastry. At the COMO store we will have around 20 staff, and pastries that are unique to the Singapore market, featuring tropical fruits and shapes like mooncake and dragon fruit. The idea is that I’m a French pastry chef and I respect the market I’m in.”

When he first started at Le Meurice, the goal was to create the most extraordinary pastries, says Grolet. “Now at my Opera store it’s back to basics, doing the same things my grandfather did – but with better quality, better technology. Two hours after opening the Opera store, I’m sold out. If I make more, then it becomes a compromise.”

Grolet’s creative instincts are not confined to edible art either. Earlier this year, he teamed up with in-vogue jewellery designer Nadine Ghosn – whose forte lies in transforming everyday items into luxe jewellery (such as a golden bicycle chain bracelet) – to create an actual work of art: a mini-croissant charm made of 18-karat gold. Grolet wears one on his wrist.

“The collaboration came quite simply from a mutual respect for each other’s work,” says Ghosn. “I would often line up to get his croissants in Paris, ‘gram it and then share them with friends or in business meetings, because the simplicity yet attention to detail was very in line with my aesthetic.” She adds: “The collaboration was extremely fun and fluid. I have a deep respect for him, revisiting a shape that is ultra familiar and making it his signature.”

Cedric Grolet may be at the peak of his profession, but there are always new mountains to climb. “I don’t know what I’ll be doing in the future but we all want to do new things,” he says. “I don’t want to operate 50 shops in 10 years. My value is in the quality. I’m a creative person and can be annoying to the people around me, but it’s important for me to take the time to do it well.” He smiles. And as a true Parisian, he is proud to have “a store in the most beautiful capital in the world”.

Styling and art direction: CK. Photography: Vernon Low