A Pastry Chef Works His Chocolatier Magic — Live | Amaury Guichon | TED

Latif Nasser: OK, chef, I think it's safe to say that the entire world is obsessed with your elaborate chocolate sculptures. (Applause) "La Liste" least recognized you as the world's most creative pastry chef. You have billions of views on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, that in addition to your Netflix show. But more important than all of that is that you are part of my four-year-old's bedtime routine. Amaury Guichon: Yes! LN: We watch one of his videos every night. These are -- my four-year-old picked these for you to watch. So we all watch your stuff, but none of us know anything about you. So where are you from? How did you get into pastry? AG: Originally, I come from France. I'm French and Swiss. I started in the culinary when I was 14 years old. I was not great, academically speaking, so I was encouraged to go to trades. I picked culinary out of a hat, really. And after my savory training, I drifted away towards the sweet side, and I really fell in love with the transformation of raw ingredients into elaborate products. LN: And so you started in France and how did you get here to the US? AG: When I was 21, I wanted to learn how to speak English. I was like most French people, we don't speak English very well, so I thought I would take one year to learn how to speak English. I was not too picky on the destination, and I got an opportunity to come to Vegas 12 years ago. And knowing that I don't party, I don't drink. I didn't think Vegas would be really home for me, but I found that in reality, the extravagance from Vegas was a perfect pairing with my ability to craft wonders. LN: Right, the wow factor. People are always -- I've introduced your videos to so many people. There's two waves of wow. The first wow is "Wow, look at those sculptures. " And then the second wow is, "He made that entire thing out of chocolate? The whole thing? " AG: Yeah, it's the beauty of the material. Aside from other medium in the field where we rely on wood, metal, wires, chocolate can do everything by itself and is 100 percent fully edible. People sometimes think I even use paint on my product, but it's really edible pigments mixed with the cocoa butter, the fat part of the cocoa bean, that makes the showpiece so beautiful. LN: Do you just walk around like, pastryfying everything in your head? You just like, "How do I make that out of chocolate? " AG: It may not surprise you, but I do that. When I see those big letters, I want to make them out of chocolate. (Laughter and applause) LN: So when we were prepping for this session, you surprised me by saying that as important as the look and the design of your work are to you, you actually care more about the taste. AG: I mean, everybody that understands chocolate can transform it into art. I think the complexity as a trained pastry chef is how do we not compromise the taste, the texture, and yet craft beauty? And I think this is where it becomes much more complex. That's where the science really kicks in. On taking basic raw ingredients. You take flour by itself, a spoonful of flour, it's not very pleasing. A spoonful of sugar is too sweet. Salt is too salty. Bite into a lemon, it's too sour. Making the recipe, having the ingredients collide together to create things that give you a good taste is really what I like to do. LN: Great. Can you give me an example, by any chance, of what you do? AG: I mean, before all the chocolate showpiece took off, because social media is very visually oriented, so I used to put a special emphasis on it. I own a school. I travel the world and teach pastry. So I have created, over the last decades, multiple pastry. One of my favorites is the coffee clock. It's coffee, chocolate, a strong espresso paired with a strong, 80-percent chocolate, that look like a clock. A little piece of jewelry. LN: OK, let's bring it out. AG: Alright. What you see on the screen are some of the elements that go into the composition of the dessert. LN: Because how long did this take you? You're speeding it up for us. He edits his own videos, by the way. How long did you speed up here? AG: This is just a few snippets, but in reality, it takes about two days of craft for all the elements to fully rest and have the best texture. So for the two minutes you guys have of pleasure

there is two days of work behind it. And it's true that not a lot of people know that. I don't know if I told you, but when I started, my social media channel was actually to raise awareness on how much work and product goes into the making of pastry that justified the price. LN: So your first videos were two days long? (Laughter) AG: I often hear the people complaining about the price of pastry. Five dollars for an eclair, it's too expensive. And it's true. But people go to nightclubs and spend 35 dollars on a mojito. (Laughter) I wanted people -- It is true. LN: Those are Vegas prices, I think. AG: Our craft is so beautiful and so amazing. I think one thing I'm the most proud of is being an ambassador of my industry and being able to display the extent of the beauty that can be achieved in the world of sweets, whether it's bread, pastry, chocolate, ice cream, sugar. And I think it's the most important. It's for people to understand. It was an industry, when I got in, that was very secretive. And I was able to break the secret, show it to the world. And I think when I got into the industry, it was considered almost a lame industry, believe it or not. And now, just like your son. He might be a future chef. In the future, he might want to become a chef. Not just because he failed academically. And I think that's my proudest achievement. (Laughter) LN: Thank you, thank you. AG: I hope he won't fail academically. LN: I love your faith in me as a father. AG: Thank you. LN: OK, so what are we doing here? Walk me through. AG: So this is the clock that you've seen on display. I think this platform is amazing to be able to express yourself. I don't often speak on my video. I usually let my hand do the work. So I still wanted to give you a little bit of my hand talk on the platform. LN: Great. AG: So here you have various chocolate elements that were all crafted out of chocolate. I got an old Swiss cuckoo clock and broke it down and cast silicone molds so I could replicate it in chocolate version. And what I wanted to show you was the final assembly of the clock. LN: OK, what are you doing? AG: We're going to start with the gears. I'm flipping them upside down. LN: I can be the cuckoo if we need. (Laughter) AG: You're the cuckoo to my clock? LN: Yeah. (Laughter) OK, what are you doing? What is that? AG: So this is tempered chocolate. So it's what you may consider glue. LN: Oh. Because it's quite cold in here, I think one of the complexity is to keep the chocolate liquid, tempered, but not overly warm. So using a heat gun, I keep the chocolate -- LN: Oh, do you just have one of those on the side of your table at all times? AG: Yes. LN: Because it hardens that fast. AG: Oh, yeah. We take one of the structure, we press it down, which allows it to have a structure. One of the requirements of being a chocolatier is the coldness of the hands. If your hands are above 32 degrees Celsius, you melt the chocolate as you're doing it. So my hands are quite cold. LN: Oh, yeah. AG: You actually have chocolate hands as well. (Laughter) LN: I'm going to quit my job. OK, great. Wow, OK. AG: Once we're done casting the first part, we can flip over the design. I don't know if you guys can see. We flip over the design, it is quite small. I don't know if you get a good idea of the scale on the screen. We're going to warm up a spatula and glue it to our base. LN: OK. Wow, they look like real gears. AG: They did come from an actual clock. LN: Wow, it's like, you have to work quickly. It's like you're on a clock to make a clock. AG: I think chocolate is all about time, temperature and mechanical action. Once you understand how chocolate works, then you can start having fun with the matter. Using a little suction cup I'm going to add the elements. One by one. I'm trying to accelerate the process. LN: Yeah. AG: But it's really -- LN: You're doing surgery. I feel like I'm watching surgery here. AG: It's really -- It's very Swiss, right? Making a clock... LN: Right, of course. AG: Out of chocolate, in gold. (Laughter)

LN: Right. AG: I'm back home. LN: But like, Vegas blinged out, I guess. AG: And the last touch will be the rivets. LN: OK. Wow. And do you just have like, extra gears and stuff, because -- Do you ever mess up? AG: I do not. LN: No. (Laughter) (Applause) AG: But I came prepared just in case I did mess up. There is a first to everything. The last thing, will be putting the gears onto the clock. LN: Wow. AG: Et voilà. (Applause) I shouldn’t say the last thing, because the last thing would be you trying it. Do you like coffee? LN: No, I don't like coffee at all. AG: Damn it! (Audience shouting) (Laughter) LN: Oh, yeah, we only have a few volunteers. Audience: Frank! LN: Frank! Frank, come on up here. Frank, come on. (Cheers and applause) Alright, Frank. AG: Hi, Frank. Frank: Pleasure to meet you. AG: Are you the taster? Frank: Apparently. LN: Come over here. AG: So you can still taste it if you wish, Latif. But I won't force you. LN: He twisted my arm, I guess I'll taste it. F: It's chocolate, how do you say no? LN: He asked if I liked coffee. I said I didn’t. AG: So inside you have a double chocolate chip cookie and hazelnut financier, a coffee creamer, a coffee caramel espresso and a chocolate mousse. F: Wow. (Laughter) AG: I'm going to give you three o'clock. (Laughter) F: Thank you. AG: And, Latif, you can try as well. LN: Cheers. F: Oh, my. (Applause) LN: Oh, my God. F: Wow, thank you. AG: Thank you. (Applause and cheers) F: I hate coffee, too. (Laughs) LN: He just told me he hates coffee, too. AG: Really? Oh, that's funny. LN: We love coffee now, thank you. AG: Thank you so much. F: Thank you. LN: Everybody. AG: Thank you, guys, thank you so much. LN: The real-life Willy Wonka. (Applause) Thank you so much, chef.