Dominique Ansel

Dominique Ansel
Ansel in 2014
Born	Beauvais, France
Website	dominiqueansel.com dominiqueanselkitchen.com dominiqueanseljapan.com
Culinary career
Current restaurant(s) Dominique Ansel Bakery, New York City, New York, United States (2011-present) Dominique Ansel Bakery Japan, Shibuya, Japan Dominique Ansel Kitchen, 137 Seventh Avenue South New York, NY 10014

Dominique Ansel (born 1977) is a French pastry chef and owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. Since its opening in November 2011, the chef’s eponymous bakery was awarded Time Out New York’s “Best New Bakery of 2012”^[1] and Metromix’s “Best Bakery of 2012”, all within four months of opening its doors. Today, it is also Zagat 2013’s highest ranked bakery.^[2]

Background

Raised in a working-class family in Beauvais, a small city north of Paris, Dominique is the youngest of four children. After high school, he apprenticed at local bakeries and spent three years as a military cook in French Guiana. Upon returning, he invested his savings in a car and drove to Paris where he eventually got a job at Fauchon. He spent seven years at Fauchon, making his way up from seasonal staff to leading the restaurant’s international expansion and setting up franchises around the world, including Russia, Egypt, and Kuwait.^[3]

Prior to starting his own business, Dominique became well known in New York as the executive pastry chef at Daniel, Daniel Boulud's flagship French restaurant.^[4] During his six years there, Dominique was part of the team that led the restaurant to receive its first four-star New York Times rating, three Michelin stars, and James Beard's Outstanding Restaurant of the Year Award in 2010.^[5]

In 2013, Dominique was nominated a finalist for the “Outstanding Pastry Chef” award by the James Beard Foundation.^[6] He was named one of the “Top 10 Pastry Chefs in the United States” by Dessert Professional magazine in 2009.^[7] And in 2010, Dominique was subsequently chosen by Time Out New York as one of the city's "Top Ten Pastry Chefs You Need to Know."^[8] Deemed the “Willy Wonka of NYC,"^[9] Ansel also popularized the Cronut, a croissant and doughnut hybrid that has been reported on^[10][11] and imitated throughout the world.^[12][13]

In August 2013, it was announced that Ansel’s first cookbook will be published by Simon & Schuster in fall 2014.^[14]

Popular pastries and desserts

Some of Ansel's creations include:

The Cronut: Ansel's doughnut and croissant hybrid. Made from laminated dough, it is sugared, filled and glazed. The bakery produces a different flavor each month. Past flavors include Rose Vanilla, Blackberry Lime, Fig Mascarpone and Apple Creme Fraiche.^[15]

Dominique's Kouign Amann (The DKA): Inspired by the Breton kouign-amann, the DKA is a caramelized croissant with a crispy shell and flaky interior. It was named one of Time Out New York’s 100 best dishes in 2012.^[16]

Frozen S’more: Inspired by the Turkish dondurma, the Frozen S’more is a chewy ice-cream wrapped in chocolate feulletine which is then enveloped in melted marshmallow, placed on an applewood-smoked willow branch and frozen.^[17] It was named Time Out New York's 'Dish of the Moment' in 2013.^[18]

Magic Soufflé: The magic soufflé is a portable chocolate Grand Marnier soufflé wrapped in an orange blossom brioche shell, noted as the only soufflé which does not collapse.^[19]

Gingerbread Pinecone: A layered pastry with a crunchy hazelnut feuilletine base, a layer of soft nutmeg cake surrounded by flavored mousse and topped with ginger flavored cream.^[20]

Salted Pistachio Religeuse: A soft choux pastry filled with white-chocolate ganache and topped with salted pistachio pieces.^[21]

Christmas Morning Cereal: The bakery’s first cold cereal made up of puffed rice clusters covered in chocolate, spiced hazelnut pieces and miniature smoked hazelnut flavored meringues.^[22]

Chocolate Chip Cookie Shot: Debuted at SXSW 2014 in Austin, Texas, the Chocolate Chip Cookie Shot is a chocolate chip cookie shaped into a shot glass, and filled with organic milk to order. The milk is cold-infused with Tahitian vanilla bean for 24 hours. ^[23][24]

Philanthropy

Ansel supports various charities, including the fight to end hunger with Food Bank for New York City. In August 2013, He worked with Bartle Bogle Hegarty to launch The Cronut Project, which raised money for the Food Bank using donations from Cronut sales.^[25]

In September 2013,^[26] Dominique Ansel Bakery partnered with Shake Shack to offer a limited amount of Cronut Hole Concretes. Hundreds of people lined up as early as 4am at a chance to purchase one of the 1000 Cronut Hole Concretes. All proceeds were donated to the NYPD Widows and Children Fund and Madison Square Park Conservancy. More than $5,300 was raised.

At a live auction in October 2013 to benefit City Harvest’s Bid Against Hunger, Dominique, Questlove and auctioneer Nicho Lowry, auctioned a dozen freshly baked Cronuts for $14,000 in less than twenty minutes.^[27]

In November, 2013, Dominique Ansel Bakery collaborated on The Cronut Mission with celebrities such as Heidi Klum, Joan Rivers and the cast of several Broadway shows to raise money for God’s Love We Deliver, a soup kitchen located near the bakery in SoHo. Thanksgiving Cronuts filled with pumpkin cream and topped with 24-karat gold leaves, were placed in packages specially designed and autographed by the participating celebs.^[28] The Cronut Mission raised $9,340.00, to fund meals for God’s Love We Deliver’s clients who are too sick to shop or cook for themselves.^[29]

References