Macaroon chef takes eager kids to his sweet spot
For pastry chef Yu Fan and his wife, this day is perhaps a taste of things to come. They have a year-old infant at home, but today they really have their hands full: A dozen primary-grade Chinese students from a Beijing language academy have swarmed their shop, Gateaux & Cadeaux, for a lesson in making macaroons.
The French-trained Yu smiles from the walls in a series of photos with mentors such as Olivier Bajard. His rock-star mane of black hair from those days is now reduced to a petit ponytail that seems both more chic and more kitchen-friendly.
His introduction for the kids starts in the retail shop. Little round gems of sweet pastry in ice-cream hues gleam from the display cooler. Next to it, mysteriously, is an ornate gramophone, a record player from a bygone century, and a bottle of expensive red wine perches next to the gadget's shiny brass trumpet.
