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This blog is where I share my passion with others, just like in my several published books, at the occasion of dessert classes or baking outings in the country side. I also happen to write a regular column in the popular WOM guide and on the famed Asia Tatler.

I grew up in the Rhône Valley, south of Switzerland, in a family where I learned everything about food. It gave me a natural attraction for quality food. To me, ingredients are everything. Indeed, creating, inventing and cooking is an art and a science, but quality ingredients are passionate craftsman’s work, knowledge and passion. I have as much respect for the miller as I have for the baker.

I have spent the last 8 years of my life baking at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, where we had 2 restaurants with 3 Michelin Stars – today, I am the co-founder of Bread Elements, an artisan bakery with a simple goal: bringing quality bread on Hong Kong’s dining table!

Thanks for visiting!

 

The little footprint no one reads: This blog is personal and is in no way related to my employer – thoughts and opinions are my own. Please also note that this blog is not a recipe blog, but rather a “everything” blog – and that is why I write recipe books actually… Please see the copyright page regarding text and photos. Thanks!

  • Margaret Wong

    Hi Greg,

    I have a question and would like to seek for your help. Do you know how to make Focaccia? Can you share the recipe and technique with me please?

    Many thanks,
    Margaret

    • http://triticum.wordpress.com Gregoire

      Hi Margaret,

      I am sending you an email with the recipe and method.

      Thanks,
      Greg

  • Nicolette Chua

    Hi Chef Gregoire,

    I am Nicolette from Singapore and recently came across your fantastic book “”Artisan Bread”. I am a stay at home mum and would love to start making my first sourdough bread following your recipes from the book but I have a question and would like to seek your help.

    For the fermentation of the raisin, what is the ratio between raisin and water ? I was wondering if I have to use a certain concentartion of fermented juice to make the mother dough.

    As I understood, the alternative method is to use the apple cider with liquor content to replace the fermented juice. I just want to confirm is that a 1 to 1 amount replacement if I were to use the cider to make the mother dough ?

    Once again thanks for such a great book and hopefully I will have a chance to attend one of your Artisan Bread Practical Class in Hong Kong one day.

    Cheers,
    Nicolette

    • http://triticum.wordpress.com Gregoire

      Hi Nicolette,

      It’s a great endeavor to try making sourdough bread! :)

      There are no specific ratio to macerate the raisins with water, I would suggest about 300gm of raisins for 1 liter of water. The point is to actually use the sugars and the wild yeast present in the raisins skin to ferment the water. It has to be fermented until the liquid turns brown, has small CO2 bubbles and smells like alcohol (from the ethanol created). Personally, I use 100% of fermented juice to start my mother dough.
      You can use alcoholic cider to start your mother dough, or for that matter, you can also start it with only water and flour. The difference is the time you need to leave your starter to ripen due to the activity of the bacterias. If you mix flour and water cover it and leave it in a warm place, you will see that 24 hours later, bubbles will start to form.

      Making bread can be frustrating at first, but in the frustration lies happiness every time your bread comes out of the oven better than the previous time! :)
      Enjoy and happy baking!
      Gregoire

      Thank you

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  • http://travellingfoodies.wordpress.com/ travellingfoodies (Alan)

    Hi Chef Gregoire,

    I have been following your blog for quite a while now and I love everything about it! Yes, literally everything! There are many great pastry chefs out there in the world, but but never had I encountered one whom one can come so up close and personal with. I have two of your books, “Never Skip Dessert” and “Say Cheese!”, gems on my bookshelves standing prominently beside the other greats works, like ph10.

    I’d been wanting to recreate some of your recipes and was thinking of trying to make the “Mascarpone Ice-Cream with Lemon Curd” plated dessert in “Say Cheese” with some modifications. I was wondering if these would work?

    (1) I chanced upon some yuzu in our local japanese supermarket and boy are they pricey! But they smell so good!!! I’m dying to use them and was thinking of substituting lemon curd with yuzu curd. Do you think it would work?

    (2) The recipe called for shortbread but I was thinking of using “sable breton” from “Never Skip Dessert” instead. I’d been very curious about this little biscuit from northern france and was hoping to make them. So you think this feasible? And what’s the baking temperature and duration for the sable breton for your recipe? It seem to have been missed out in the book.

    Alan
    http://travellingfoodies.wordpress.com/

    • Anonymous

      Hi Alan,

      And wow, I feel so honored by your kind comments; a genuine thank you to you!

      Fresh yuzu juice will work with the recipe, yet, while yuzu has (for me) a more beautiful fragrance than lemon, it is also much more acidic and powerful, thus you might want to adjust the level of juice, perhaps 2/3 of yuzu and one third of orange juice. You wouldn’t feel the orange as yuzu is so powerful. We’re actually making a new pastry with kalamansi juice and to a lesser extent than yuzu, we needed to cut down on kalamansi juice to obtain the right balance.

      Yes, using Sable Breton is a great idea. They are virtually cookies packed with as much butter as possible and just enough flour to hold it together :-) I like to use less salt in the recipe and use demi-sel butter instead of regular butter. Sorry about the miss for the duration and temperature of baking. In a regular home oven, 180 to 190C is a good temperature and time of baking should be about 20 minutes. Once baked, they should be golden brown and crunchy!

      All the best in your baking endeavors! :)

      Gregoire

      BTW: I added a link to your very nice blog on my website!

      • http://travellingfoodies.wordpress.com/ travellingfoodies (Alan)

        Hi Chef Gregoire,

        Thanks for the swift reply and your link! I’d also linked yours to my blog as well. the pleasure is all mine! :)

        And here’s the outcome of my attempt. Hope I’d not distorted your wonderful creation too much.

        http://travellingfoodies.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/yuzu-curd-and-mascarpone-ice-cream-on-soft-meringue/

        I can’t pipe the meringue as smoothly as you’d done in the photo in the book. So instead, I piped two rings of meringue dollops instead. Definitely not as elegantly put as in your presentation. Not in retrospect, it seems like one ring would probably have suffice?

        I would love some criticisms from you. :)

  • http://essenfreude.blogspot.com Maria

    My boyfriend took me to Caprice last year for our anniversary and I have to say the best thing about the meal was the bread we had that night…I still dream about those gougères!

    • http://gregoiremichaud.com Gregoire Michaud

      Thanks a lot for your comment Maria, I appreciate it and for sure will convey it to my team! A tap on the shoulder every now and then never hurt! :)

  • La boulangère

    Bonjour, Grégoire,

    Où pourrais-je acheter votre nouveau livre ‘La Boulangerie’? J’habite à Hong Kong et je ne veux pas le commander sur Amazon à cause des frais de port.  Je l’ai parcouru chez un ami et j’aimerais bien essayer quelques unes de vos recettes.
    Merci!
    Jacqueline

    • http://gregoiremichaud.com Gregoire Michaud

      Bonjour Jacqueline,

      Merci beaucoup pour votre message!
      En effet, Amazon sont tres fort avec les frais de ports! Le meilleur moyen est surement de le commander sur mon blog en cliquant sur “My Books”. C’est le meme prix que dans les librairies de Hong Kong et les frais de port sont gratuit pour Hong Kong! :)

      Je vous remercie encore de votre support et j’espere que vos pains seront un succes!
      Gregoire

    • La boulangère

      Merci, Grégoire.  Il semble qu’il y ait un problème de sécurité entre mon ordi et votre site.  Je vais donc voir si je peux commander votre livre dans une des libraires de HK.
      Jacqueline

      • Gregoire Michaud

        Je suis désolé d’apprendre les problèmes que le site vous posent pour la commande du livre. La page fonctionne normalement et je vais donc voire avec les techniciens qui s’en occupe si il y a des problèmes. Si vous n’arrivez pas à commander le livre dans une librairie, laisser moi un message par la page de ‘contact’ de ce site et je suis sure qu’il y aura une solution . :-)

        Un grand merci!
        Grégoire

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