KNOWN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC FOR HIS APPEARANCES ON TOP CHEF AND MEILLEURE BOULANGERIE DE FRANCE [FRANCE'S BEST BAKERY], MEROUAN BOUNEKRAF STARTED OUT AS A CHEF. IN 2021, HE OPENS PANADE, IN THE 15th ARRONDISSEMENT OF PARIS. THIS BAKERY IS JUST LIKE HIM: CREATIVE AND LIMITLESS.
Text by Mégane Fleury (Featured in the May 2025 issue of Pastry1 Magazine)
“I love a challenge," says Merouan Bounekraf. When you're afraid, you don't achieve much."
The baker-pastry chef-cook runs Panade, in Paris's 15th arrondissement. Known for his participation in Top Chef and various culinary TV programs, he opened this bakery in November 2021. "It all happened on the spur of the moment. I was due to sign for a restaurant at the end of March 2020, and with the Covid-19 epidemic, I abandoned the project. At the time, I was shooting for programs on M6 and thought about opening a patisserie, and everyone told me that bread was in demand, so I gave it a try."
He surrounded himself with a competent team and then quickly acquired the know-how. “I'd mastered pastry-making, but I really didn't know how to bake," he confides. This is no longer the case.” After 15 years in the kitchen (Le Bristol, L’escargot 1903, Le Metropolitan), Merouan Bounekraf decided to do things his own way, by combining originality and quality. “I never wanted to be like everyone else," he confirms. As it happens, there are so many bakeries in France, that you have to be creative to stand out from the crowd.”
This commitment is even expressed in the names of our products. The Panadais is his version of the Oranais, the Blackguette is a baguette made with traditional flour and smoked malt, and the Easter, made for Easter 2023, is a blend of cocoa and plain croissant dough, topped with milk polenta, a corn-glazed ganache egg, corn confit and corn pickles. "I often come up with the name and the play on words before I even think of the recipe. For example, for Christmas, I wanted to make a log with beans, so I thought of the lingot bean, and the idea for the name, lingrodor, came to me." For Easter, he imagined an "o-pack" with real little chocolate bottles. “I'm a bit eccentric," he laughs. Of course, creating custom molds is expensive, but I'd rather earn less and enjoy myself, than sell products that don't thrill me."
Classics such as the traditional baguette and pain au chocolat are still available in stores. "On the other hand, I prioritize making 'luxury' viennoiserie, as it's known.” Sold for 1.80 euros, the croissant is made with PoitouCharente P.D.O. butter. and a blend of flours from Ile-de-France, for a raw weight of around 100 g for each piece. "It's hard to find a good viennoiserie chef these days. The job is often sidelined in today's bakeries, or even abandoned in favor of industrial viennoiserie. Falling into this pattern means contributing to the disappearance of the profession. It's coming back into fashion a bit today, particularly thanks to social networks, and that's a good thing."
Merouan Bounekraf acquired this respect for know-how and raw materials "long before TV". "I've been working in old-fashioned kitchens and businesses for sixteen years, which has instilled in me a sense of rigor and a taste for a job well done. What I find difficult is to implement the rigor of Michelinstarred restaurants on a daily basis in the bakery, and it's not always easy to get teams to follow your lead.
One of the values he tries to pass on to his teams is the reduction of waste. "We try not to throw anything away; that’s how it’s always been in places where I've worked. This pushes us to come up with ideas for reusing scraps or leftovers. We make four or five viennoiseries using raw dough trimmings, for example, or unsold goods from the previous day.” His experience in the kitchen also gives him a different perspective on how products are made. "In the kitchen, I was always taught to season products correctly. In my creations, I try to mix things up. Also, we often change the range, and this is perhaps a remnant of my years in the kitchen, as in many traditional bakeries, the menu is relatively fixed." His sweet creations often feature unexpected ingredients such as vegetables and aromatic herbs.
In early March, Merouan Bounekraf returned to his restaurant days. The chef opened an pop-up restaurant at Boom boom Villette, a food court in northern Paris. The site could remain open for six months. "I missed cooking," explains Merouan Bounekraf, "and besides, it doesn't cost me much, except time!" Every day, the new baker works in the bakery and the boutique, but from now on he'll have to spend time in the kitchen from time to time. Challenges definitely don't scare him.
Merouan Bounekraf's keys to success: "I think there's only one: work. That's the most important thing for success in this business. This requires sufficient courage, willpower and, of course, rigor.”