The China Mail - Newly crowned world's best pastry chef stays true to artisan roots

His fingers covered in cookie dough, the 54-year-old with salt-and-pepper hair had returned to his usual routine as an "artisan-retailer" after the International Union of Bakers and Confectioners (UIBC) named him World Confectioner of the Year last month.

"I have a mission: to be the world champion every day in my shop for my customers," he said, eyes twinkling.

At the helm of several establishments in Paris, Castel has never strayed from his motto: "It's all about the product."

Three years after fellow French pastry chef Nina Metayer was crowned champion, Castel received the UIBC award presented annually to a leading figure in the profession in recognition of their career and contribution to the trade on July 14 in Singapore.

"Our work is no trivial matter, every day we make things that people put into their bodies," said Castel, who hails from Brittany in western France.

The pastry shop's glass cases are arrayed with blueberry and raspberry tartlets, cherry clafoutis and vanilla flans, but his best-seller is a chocolate choux pastry.

"If we stopped making it, there'd be protests," he said.

Each of his pastries is decorated with a small, scalloped shortbread biscuit -- a nod to his home region -- whereas colouring or bits of gold or silver leaf are eschewed.

Fruit and vegetables are delivered to the chef from his own vegetable gardens and orchards in Brittany.

The grandson of farmers, he grew up watching his grandparents make their own butter.

"My mother and my grandmother cook divinely well," he said.

From the age of seven, he wanted to become a chef and received his first recipe book.

But it was watching a pastry chef spin a model of the famed Loire valley Chateau de Chambord out of sugar while out to dinner three years later that set him firmly on the path of pastry-making.

- 'Try new things' -

"The funny thing with this profession is that it's the product that dictates the recipe," he said enthusiastically from his kitchen, which opens onto the shop and the dining room, a popular spot for brunch.

Dressed in his white pastry chef's jacket embroidered with his name, he works with Romain Montbabut, his head baker, with whom he regularly tests new recipes.

With a finger, he tastes the freshly made sourdough, prepared with flour milled a few months earlier in the back room.

The pastry chef is "demanding, he has this slightly perfectionist side we're very fond of", said Montbabut, who has been working with him for six years.

"He's there alongside his workers every day and loves to pass things on," he added.

When Castel set out on his own in 2012 after working with chef Helene Darroze, at the prestigious Hotel Costes and La Grande Epicerie de Paris, he discovered the art of breadmaking.

As a novice, he created his famous "pain du coin", made from a variety of flours, natural quince sourdough starter, honey and Salish salt from the US Pacific Northwest.

This was followed by "the bread of yesterday and tomorrow", made from the previous day's unsold stock as part of an anti-waste initiative.

Always in search of new inspiration, Castel also collaborates with artists to create Yule logs. "Because they're not technically limited in their ideas, it pushes us to try new things," he said.

Alongside his daughter Margot, he is set to open a new venue in Paris in September -- a cross between a cafe, a restaurant and a bakery-patisserie.

"These days, I'm as much a cook, a gardener and a baker as I am a pastry chef," he said.

"But above all else, I'm a pastry chef."

Y.Su--ThChM