HAS 30 years old, Anne Coruble accumulates distinctions. Already awarded by the Michelin guides in 2021 and Lebey in 2022, she also received the Fou de Patisserie prize in 2023 and was elected pastry chef of the year 2024 by La Liste.
“When I joined the Peninsula, at 25, it was the first time in my life that I could create the dishes I wanted. I asked myself: how can I stand out? French pastry is broad, it evolves very quickly, we had to find desserts that resemble me.
At the Peninsula, the chef [de cuisine David Bizet] seeks to think outside the box, and that spoke to me. I told myself that I was going to offer customers daring desserts, to show that there can be continuity between a dish and a dessert. It became a game: I started testing all the time, with the rule of never repeating something I had already done before.
I like to start from a known base, like vanilla, chocolate or, at the moment, coffee, and take it elsewhere. This dessert makes the transition between winter and spring, the warm notes of coffee meet other more lively ones, such as pickled and candied ginger. As a general rule, I average around nine to fifteen preparations per dessert. Here, there are thirteen, and each contributes to the intensity of the whole. Date sorbet brings sweetness, like caramelized honey, which goes well with roasted coffee. Argan oil acts as a binder, like a sauce. Grated nutmeg gives an earthy note. It has to be confusing.
A story of balance
My experiments don’t always work the first time. More acidity, less creaminess… it’s often a matter of balance to be adjusted. I can’t stay locked into my own tastes. So my team tastes, the chef tastes. Once, on a chocolate-caper-pickle dessert, it was pointed out to me that the acidity of the caper took over the intensity of the cocoa, and I revised my recipe. In general, hotel guests are curious, they don’t find it too daring.
In baking, there are times for everything: if I go to eat in a gourmet restaurant, I want to be surprised, whereas at home I prefer a classic, sharing cake. In my private life, I like simple desserts like the tarte tatin that my mother made in Normandy. We picked apples from the garden, we made our puff pastry, the butter and cream came from the farm. It didn’t look like much, but all the products were very good, and the result was too.
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