French pastry chef Dominique Ansel on new Hong Kong bakery – and why he’s leaving the Cronut behind
- Ansel says Hong Kong is a city with history and heart and deserves its own pastry creations, not just copies from elsewhere
- New bakery, Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel, is expected to open in Hong Kong in December in Tsim Sha Tsui
When French pastry chef Dominique Ansel – best known as the inventor of the Cronut, the croissant-doughnut hybrid that is so famous the name is trademarked – offers to come to your home to cook dinner, what would you say?
The smart thing to say is, “Yes, please, what time, and what wine would go well with the food?” What is not wise to say to a man who was awarded World’s Best Pastry Chef 2017 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list is, “Yes, please, and should I make dessert?”
Guess which category this writer is in.
Fortunately, Ansel, and his fiancée and business partner, Amy Ma, came to my flat bearing not just groceries for the meal he was making (beef soup noodles and three cup chicken, dishes he learned how to make from Ma’s mother in Taiwan), but also so many of his own desserts that my own (all three of them) were superfluous.
Ansel, who was born in Beauvais, France, has four bakeries around the world: the original, Dominique Ansel Bakery, opened in New York City in 2011, followed in 2015 by Dominique Ansel Kitchen, in the same city.