Interview with Master Baker Éric Kayser, Plus Recipes from His Book (2024)

He may have launched his first boulangerie at 31 but his belated start did not stopÉric Kayser from making his mark in Paris. Two decades on, the boulanger is at thehelm of a global brand. Here, the mogul opens the doors of his baking empire.

“Sorry, he keeps running off to the bakery,” reads theapologetic text message from Éric Kayser’s flusteredpublicist. After an hour spent chasing the elusiveboulanger to no avail, it seems he has now truly gonerogue. There is no prying the man from his impeccablylaid-out display counter. Not exactly what one wouldexpect from a tycoon with 200 maisons to his name and a phalanx ofrank and file quite capable of steering the ship. But the industriousbaker was never one to shy away from the nitty-gritty.

“There’s always something more to do,” says a disarmingly upbeatKayser, freshly marshalled to the phone by his dutiful rep, after yetanother impromptu excursion to his very first flagship London bakery– helpfully located on Baker Street. “I’m just a good conductor,” hehastens to add with a chuckle. “Or a pawn, actually,” he reconsiders,without a hint of false modesty. “In a business like ours it’s not thejourney of one man, but the journey of a united team. Working in sucha tough profession keeps you level-headed. I often say it, and peoplethink I’m just having a moan, but it’s true: you have to be tough andready to work hard in this job.”

EARLY INITIATION

Raised by a dyed-in-the-wool Alsatian boulanger in a small town ofFranche-Comté, Éric learned the value of hard graft from a youngage. But his exposure to backbreaking work is as far as his earlyinitiation went. His parents sold up the family boulangerie andpacked up for Fréjus in Southern France when he was ten; leaving thebereft little boy with one idée fixe: to one day reclaim his legacy andfollow in his father’s footsteps. Of course, many laughed off his grandambitions to open “many bakeries around the world” (no less) aschildish natter.

“Some youngsters dream of being actors, singers. I dreamt of beinga baker. I could never picture myself doing anything else,” he saysfirmly. “Even though I had never really experienced it. All I canremember is baking an apple tart with my father once when I waslittle. But everything kept bringing me back to this job. People tried tomake me change my mind but it was in my blood.”

Undeterred, he ploughed on, biding his time in school beforeenrolling as an apprentice at the first opportunity. He threw himselfinto his training “eyes wide open” – and head screwed on. Even so,the industry’s unsociable hours, capped with rather lax labour laws,proved to be a rude awakening.

“There were no restrictions on working hours for minors, and Ioften started before 1am,” he recalls. “One time, I took a girl out to godancing and explained that I would disappear by midnight, likeCinderella. When she asked why, I told her that I was a baker… Andthe spell was broken.”

His apprenticeship barely complete, he was conscriptedand posted to a base in Lyon. Craving adventure, and “bored todeath”, he begged his superiors to send him away – preferably to thefarthest-flung recess possible. He got his wish and within days wasshuttled off to war-torn Lebanon with the Blue Berets.

“I had such a hunger to see the world. So I said, ‘I’ll do anything –sniper, tank driver – but please, I need to travel, send me anywhere.’They were looking for volunteers to go to Lebanon. I said yes. Thatwas the start for me. I was finally going to discover the world. I hadquite a tough upbringing but still it was a hard time. We livedtogether, slept with our rifles. But at 18, I didn’t care. I wanted to livelife to the fullest. Nothing could stop me.”

This contretemps would be the first of many to stand in the way ofhis baking aspirations. Back in France after seven months on the frontline, he joined the Compagnons du Devoir. He credits the guild fortraining him in the finicky art of teaching. Before he quite knew how,he was roped in as a full-time trainer, first with the Compagnons, thenat the prestigious Institut National de la Boulangerie Pâtisserie,France’s leading technical college for bakers. All the while he inchedfurther from his childhood dream of heading up his own boulangerie.

“I didn’t really want to but everything seemed to push me towardstraining. They had taught me so much, I had to give something back. Iwould travel to Nice for a week, then do some training in Lyon. I spentmy life on trains! But in a way it allowed me to do what I do today,training people around the world to run our bakeries.”

Yet he did far more than lounge around in first-class or blindly sendnew generations of bright-eyed bakers off into a lapsed – andincreasingly rudderless – industry; one which had virtually abandonednatural leavens and turned its back on handed-down savoir-faire. In1994, Kayser embarked on a mission to revive a tradition in its finalthroes and developed the Fermentolevain, his modern answer to theindustry’s identity crisis. The machine was designed to keep liquidleavening agent at just the right temperature, making it easier to workand produce traditional breads with a distinctive nutty flavor andextended shelf-life.

Armed with the award-winning wünder-machine, the baker withouta bakery eventually gave himself “a kick up the bum”. After a decadespent circling around his goal, on Friday 13, 1996, he launched MaisonKayser on rue Monge in Paris, a boulangerie bravely peddlingold-fashioned breads in a market bent on churning out additive-ladenbaguettes. Customers lapped up his back-to-basics ethos. Thebakery could not peel boules out of the oven fast enough.

“At 31 years old I told myself, ‘Let’s go, what are you waiting for?’”he booms. “It wasn’t easy. It happened too fast and we really weren’tprepared. The production side was fine but the sales side really wasn’tthere. It was a learning curve. We had decided to do somethingcompletely different, to return to the origins of bread-making, whichhad nearly vanished in France, and around the world.

“I’m not tooting my own horn,” he adds, ever keen not to comeacross as boastful, “but lots of young people today tell me that I’veallowed them to rediscover this traditional way of making bread andto go back to basics. After a year I decided to open a second shop,then a third…”

RESOUNDING SUCCESS

Over the past 20 years he has certainly made up for his belated start.From Mexico to Phnom Penh – the latter a resounding, if unexpected,success, he notes – via New York and, surprisingly, Dakar, his empireis dotted around the globe. With each inauguration, he explains withboyish excitement, he edges closer to ticking off every last destinationon his childhood bucket list.

“I always yearned to open bakeries in the world’s capitals and bigcities – New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and now London – but also,what was really important for me was to go to developingcountries. That’s my greatest pride. We’ve just signed to openin Abidjan and in Nigeria. The work never ends. We’re always openingup somewhere.”

Any mention of cold, hard figures – so many branches simply callfor it – are swiftly brushed off with a categorical “I don’t look at thenumbers, that doesn’t interest me.” Quickly followed by a pleading “Iswear. I just want to discover new places, try new things, create, beon the move, always.”

Abroad – as at home – he is renowned for his inventive recipes,adapted to local taste buds and embracing homegrown ingredients,whether that means sprinkling a pinch of punchy turmeric in good oldpetit* pains or a smattering of earthy matcha in brioche dough.

“The world is my inspiration,” he declares without missing a beat.“My turmeric and nut bread came from my travels in India. There’sthe rose-petal bread and one with raspberry seeds,” reels off thebafflingly trim father-of-two, considering his indulgent vocation. (Heis a committed runner, it emerges, and has totted up 40-oddmarathons around the world so far. That is when he is not strollingalong the Seine, or squeezing in a few laps in the pool.)

“Whenever you open a new bakery abroad you’re working withdifferent ingredients. It’s a challenge but it’s also part of the charm ofmy line of work.”

Some recipes have tickled his customers’ sweet tooth, while othershave received a lukewarm reception. No matter, his relentless questfor outlandish flavour combinations and off-beat twists on the plainold fougasse or épi leave him little time to dwell. When his latestseasonal range hits the world’s shelves in a few short weeks, he willalready be kneading the next fanciful batch in his mind’s eye.

“I’m extremely lucky, I am really optimistic by nature. I feel down,like everyone else, but only once a year, for about six minutes, andthen I’m good to go again,” he says, a deep belly laugh bubbling up.“It’s a difficult job, there’s no doubt about it, but when it’s in yourDNA, you don’t have a choice.”

The Larousse Book of Bread – Recipes
to Make at Home by Éric Kayser

These recipe extracts are taken fromThe Larousse Book of Bread – Recipesto Make at Home by Éric Kayser(Phaidon).

BREAD ROLLS WITHLARDONS AND PECANS