Florian Bellanger

Early career

Bellanger grew up in Paris and spent much of his free afternoons baking for his family. However, a childhood chocolate allergy prevented him from enjoying sweets and desserts for six years, which temporarily discouraged his desire to bake. At age 15, Bellanger applied to one of Paris's prestigious pastry schools, the École de Paris des Métiers de la Table ("Paris school of table skills"), but was rejected for being a year too young. By 1986, he graduated from the school with a specialization in pastry cooking and a specialty in chocolate and ice cream; he now says chocolate is his favorite ingredient and admires its versatility, claiming it is "fun" and something "taken for granted."

Before starting his own company, Bellanger was the executive pastry chef at Fauchon and oversaw 24 other pastry chefs at its Tea Salon flagship store in New York City, a "legendary French Epicurean emporium" of cakes, cookies, ice creams and sorbets. There, he became known for creating inventive combinations of flavors outside of the norms of tradition, such as éclairs flavored with orange zest, passion fruit or coconut and raspberry marshmallow cake, Toulouse violet ice cream and raspberry-chili pepper sorbet. From 1991 to 1994, he was under the command of famous French pastry chef Pierre Hermé and was also the executive pastry chef for Fauchon's flagship store in Qatar from 1994 to 1996.

Bellanger was pastry chef of the world-renowned (three Michelin stars) restaurant Le Bernardin from 1996 to 2001, where his desserts were described as "light and dreamy" by Ruth Reichl of The New York Times.

Career

Bellanger is now the chef and owner of Mad Mac Macarons http://www.madmacnyc.com "the Authentic French Macarons and Madeleines" an acclaimed French cookie and pastry company, which he helped fund in 2006.

Bellanger is a member of City Harvest's Food Council and a guest chef at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, New York. He also spends his free time donating to charities such as C-CAP Careers Through Culinary Arts Program http://www.ccapinc.org/, the Wolfgang Puck Charity and the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation.

TV Work

Bellanger is a permanent judge on the Food Network's hit competition series Cupcake Wars which aired in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, the Philippines and South Africa. Cupcake Wars is a Food Network reality-based competition show hosted by Justin Willman based on creating unique and professional-style cupcakes that began airing in June 2010. The show was similar to Chopped in that it started with four contestants who are eliminated one by one in three rounds. During seasons 1–3, the show's time-slot was Tuesdays at 8 pm, EST, but at the beginning of the 4th season, the time-slot changed to Sundays at 8PM EST. The show also challenged its contestants to create cupcakes with unusual ingredients with the winning team receiving $10,000. Each team consisted of a chef and a sous-chef. Cupcake Wars began airing its 8th season on March 3, 2013.

Recognition

Bellanger was named one of the 10 Best Pastry Chefs in America in 2003 and 2004 by Pastry Art & Design magazine. In 2000 and 2001, the James Beard Foundation acclaimed Bellanger's accomplishments with a nomination for "Outstanding Pastry Chef." He is also the Jury President of the US Pastry Competition which is held every February in NYC, and has been featured on many networks including CNN, NBC, Food Network, and Martha Stewart Living. Bellanger's cake and pastry works have received attention in various magazines and publications including House Beautiful, Martha Stewart Weddings, Forbes, Brides, Modern Bride, GQ magazine, Time Out magazine, People, The New York Times, InStyle magazine, Pastry Art & Design, Food Arts, Chocolatier magazine, The Nibble, Delta Sky magazine and New York Magazine, and PastryScoop.com.

Awards