“I am delighted to represent France and to help promote the quality of the work of artisan bakers and pastry chefs around the world. ” Therefore Nina Métayer received the title of World Pastry Chef of the Year 2023 on Wednesday evening in Munich while the Taiwanese Wu Tzu Ching received that of World Baker.
This is the first time that the International Union of Bakers and Pastry Chefs (UIBC) has awarded its pastry chef of the year prize to a woman. “I include myself among those who want to move things forward,” she confided to 20 minutes during her first participation in Taste of Paris in 2021. Because I also have a lot of convictions about the role, about the status of women in the gastronomy professions… I take this role to heart because it is important to show to young women who have dreams that even if it is not easy every day, we must not give up to at least try to achieve them. »
The pastry chef’s skill
Wednesday evening in Munich, the pastry chef was happy to be able to add: “I thank my peers for their trust and this distinction touches me all the more as my career began in a bakery. » It was indeed this profession which was the basis of an expertise which she then applied to pastry making. His work as a lathe maker, in particular, significantly influenced his approach to pasta and puff pastry.
It is no coincidence that its galettes des rois, for example, are among the most sophisticated that can be found on the market. Its 2024 range will be no exception. Having tasted it, we admit a weakness for the “Galette ambrée”, the most traditional of its creations, which subtly awakens the senses between the creaminess of frangipane and the deep notes of a quality rum.
But the most beautiful is the “Flakes of Kings”. This superbly sophisticated pancake, with its citrus aromas, requires cooking the two tiles that make up the flake in two stages and hot shaping to give it volume. A great piece of work that can be found to order on its websitesince Nina Métayer has the particularity of not having a physical store, but since the end of 2020 an online store called Délicatisserie.