The French-trained Pastry Chef, Nicolas Lambert, who won Pastry Chef of the Year at the Gault&Millau awards in 2022, spent years honing his craft across Europe and Asia before bringing his expertise to Dubai.
Yet, upon taking on the role as Senior Executive Pastry Chef at the Four Seasons Dubai, Lambert’s first strategy was not to dive into extravagant desserts.
“My first mission when arriving to Dubai was to fix the croissant,” Lambert revealed in an exclusive interview with Arabian Business. Through sourcing high-quality French ingredients and focusing on technique, Lambert quickly built a reputation for baking some of the city’s best croissants.
His croissants are known for their minimal flakiness, rich flavourful fillings and layered variations. One of his most famous creations was a giant croissant that became an instant sensation on social media.
“Today we have a lot of guests [that] come here just for the breakfast because of the bakery and croissants” Lambert noted.
While passion is just one reason Lambert keeps testing the boundaries of croissants, the other is simply business. With a rotating selection of 20 pastries replaced every three days, customers repeatedly return to sample new croissant variations and exclusive editions before they sell out.
“We are always pushing to change some [pastries] and offer something different,” Lambert remarks. Whether visiting the bakery or staying at the hotel, each visit offers an opportunity to discover a new variation of the famous French croissant.
Will we ever reach peak croissant?
The culture of customers flocking to bakeries and posting photos of their latest artisanal pastry discovery has fuelled a trend. Over the past decade, there have been a variety of croissants ranging from Dominique Ansel’s deep-fried cronut to Layfayette’s Suprême croissant: a circular, brightly glazed coiled croissant that, most importantly, could stand upright for the camera.
Most recently, the bakery, La Farine Bakery at JW Marriot Marquis Dubai, has been making waves across the city with their “crookie,” a type of hybrid variation between a croissant and a cookie.
According to Lambert, viral sensations like these are innovative and great for the industry, however the fundamentals of a quality croissant have not changed.
“People are too focused about the visual on Instagram,” Lambert says. “Sometimes when you make the pastry for Instagram, you compromise the taste. It’s difficult to find the right balance between beautiful and tasteful,” Lambert adds.
The key to exceptional French pastries is first mastering techniques and developing flavours before experimenting with new creations. Lambert stresses understanding ingredients, perfecting methods, and focusing on small details. His philosophy is shared by his team, who spend weeks or months testing new pastry and croissant concepts, fine-tuning textures, tastes and presentations to meet the high standards of Four Seasons’ guests.
“Our guests have travelled to Paris and know what good quality pastries tastes like,” Lambert explains. “We feel the pressure to maintain the level of high-quality because of them,” he adds.
How does the “perfect” croissant look
According to acclaimed chef, creating a high-quality croissant requires a delicate balance of textures and flavors. “A good croissant should be crispy on the outside but not too crunchy or hard,” he explains. “You want some flakiness but not so much that it becomes dry and crumbly.”
In making the famous French pastry, Lambert advocates for a very personal touch, “You need to feel the product, touch it with your hands.”
It involves two days of precisely executed fermentation and blending the dough at specific temperatures to create a silky dough. When the hygrometry aligns, the buttery sheets can be pleated and pinched into crescent shaped pastries.
When you cut into the pastry, a “perfect” croissant will have visible layers that are not exaggerated or oily. Moderation is key, “you want to taste the nice buttery flavor without it being greasy,” Lambert says.
He reveals that replicating an authentic French croissant outside of France is very difficult, as accessing French ingredients can be challenging. However, Lambert stresses that the quality he can create in Dubai far surpasses other countries where he has worked. “Dubai has become so advanced in its culinary scene, and sourcing authentic good quality ingredients is easy,” he says.
What sets Lambert’s recipe apart is his unique blend of ingredients and precision of flavours. His recipe includes many ingredients that are often not used in the traditional croissant dough.
“I add honey in the recipe for texture and sweetness. I also use trimoline, which gives the croissant a very soft, moist texture when you eat it,” Lambert revealed when asked about what “fixed” the Four Seasons’ croissants.
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