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Q: No macarons and madeleines?

A: Yes, of course, macarons and madeleines as well. There are a billion flavours of macarons. I’ll keep changing them depending on inspiration. It doesn’t matter what flavour you want, it will be the one I won’t have. We’ve also got preserves — strawberry and blueberry jam, ground cherry preserves — and vanilla I made. We will also have coffee. We will change the menu as we go. To start, all we want to do is very small, but very good.

Q: Why did you name your business Macarons et Madeleines?

A: It’s a bit of a metaphor. Everyone thinks to make a macaron is difficult, and there are many steps, but you can cheat a bit, hide things with the fillings. A madeleine is much simpler, just five ingredients, and there is nowhere to hide. To make them like Marcel Proust describes them, as biting into a cloud, is very difficult. To get just the right texture, the right flavour, is very challenging.

Q: Why did you decide to be a pastry chef?

A: I was always trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I was a bagpiper for 10 years, in London, Ont. But when we lived in London, my wife Julie and I would always be talking about how the food was so much better in Montreal, where we both grew up. Then Julie saw that there was a Cordon Bleu program in Ottawa, which was closer to our families. I took both the cuisine program and the pastry one. At first I thought pastry wasn’t really my thing, because, like most people, I rarely baked at home. Then I discovered this pastry world and I knew it was where I wanted to be. We lived in Paris for about a year to allow me to experience that — the whole thing where down time is valued, eating is valued. Until a few years ago, being a pastry chef was not as honourable as being a garbage man. Now, in Paris, they walk like gods on earth. I think if you follow your heart, people will follow you. Whatever you do in life, you should copy the very best.