Inspired by Savory Pastries

This new concept was surprising. In the strictest sense of the word, pâtisserie refers to "a sweet pastry-based culinary preparation."

Admittedly, this definition was sometimes extended to "all sweet or savory preparations requiring the presence of a pastry as support or casing land] generally baked." The fact remains that traditionally, the art of the pastry chef was seen to belong in the world of desserts and sweets (sponge cake, hot, cold or iced desserts, large and small cakes, petits-fours, pièces montées, etc.), while savory products made from pastry (quiches, pies, pâtés en croûte, rissoles, cakes, gougères, etc.) were the domain of the cook, butcher or caterer. Admittedly, over time, the boundaries between the two domains had become somewhat blurred.

And let's not forget that in the Middle Ages, the distinction wasn't quite as strict: pastry chefs were defined as those who worked with dough, whether savory or sweet (the latter being quite rare due to the high cost of honey and the prohibitive price of cane sugar).

In the Middle Ages, pastry chefs worked with both sweet aral savory doughs.

In the early 2010s, the revolution consisted of the "reworking" of the great sweet pastry classics towards savory dishes. One of the oldest of these was the millefeuille, invented by François Pierre de la Varenne in 1651. Today's pastry chefs have come up with numerous savory equivalents: using tomato, zucchini, ham, beef or cheese. Alongside the religieuses already mentioned, we've also seen the emergence of éclairs filled with a mixture of salmon-dill, ham-cheese, foie gras-fig jam or chicken-curry. And Saint-Honoré with petits choux filled with Roquefort mousse, shrimp, smoked salmon or foie gras. There are also charlottes with mini zucchini, madeleines with chorizo, profiteroles with taramasalata, brioche tiramisu with crab, muffins with spinach and mozzarella, cookies with goat's cheese and raisins, kouglofs with bacon and aged Comté cheese, scones with Parmesan, cheese-cake with smoked salmon, clafoutis and crumbles with bapar vegetables, and much more... At the same time, "historic" savory pastries have also been subject to the creative assaults of numerous artisans.Tarts, pies and quiches, puff pastries and turnovers, savory cakes... have incorporated new ingredients and/or new combinations. Charcuterie pastries, flagships of French gastronomy, have also been given a new lease of life... This is particularly true of the pâté en croûte, which has experienced a new wave thanks to the inventiveness and know-how of talented young professionals who have modernized its fillings (lemon-chicken, pork-foie gras, chicken-asparagus-mushroom). In this particular case, this transformation was greatly stimulated by the launch of a world pâté en croûte championship in 2009!

Since the pioneering days of the past ten years, many food artisans (including prestigious chefs) have developed their own range of savory pastries. The fact that pastries are now no longer reserved for desserts, snacks and take-away food, but can be eaten as an aperitif (pear and bleu des Causses cheese financiers, chorizo and comté cannelés), a starter or a main course (zucchini pie, cauliflower cake, vegetable clafoutis or crumble) no longer shocks many people. 

The quest for variety is one of the great pillars of our French food culture

Key Drivers of a Trend

Initially, pastry chefs' aim was to surprise their customers with originality and technical excellence: replacing sugar, maintaining freshness and lightness, obtaining colors as vivid and glazes as brilliant as with a sweet pastry was far from simple. The desired effect of surprise and novelty has worked well on the whole, evidently responding to a deep-seated and universal motivation among "foodies". Anthropologists have taught us that humans are neophiles.They are spontaneously attracted to new foods because as omnivores, they need a diversified diet. Additionally, the quest for variety is one of the great pillars of our French food culture: most of us hate routine and monotony in our menus. While enabling professionals to diversify their range to boost sales, savory pastries have broadened the range of foods and culinary dishes available to consumers. But that's not all... While we're neophilic omnivores, were also, and at the same time, neophobes: spontaneously, we're wary of new foods (an archaic protective reflex against unknown, potentially dangerous foods). From this point of view, pastries are reassuring and "regressive": we spontaneously associate them with a comforting sweetness and the pleasures of childhood.