Eric Lanlard

Éric Lanlard
Born 1968 (age 47–48)
Plomelin, Brittany France
Website www.cake-boy.com

Culinary career

Éric Lanlard (born 1968) is a French pâtissier and celebrity chef.[1] He was previously a chef for the French Navy but moved to the UK in 1989 to work with Albert and Michel Roux. He left their company in 1995 to set up his first business, Laboratoire 2000, which was replaced by his shop Cake Boy in 2005. He had previously appeared on British television in guest spots on a number of channels before Channel 4 gave him his own television series, Glamour Puds and Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard.

Biography

Born in Plomelin, Brittany,[2] Eric has described his original inspiration to become a pâtissier was at the age of ten, where he would stare through the windows of a patisserie in his town called "Le Grande". He would go on to work there, training as a pastry chef.[3] Lanlard has also stated that the French chef Pierre Hermé was a particular inspiration, and his book Paris Patisseries particularly glamorised pastry work.[4] He moved to Luxembourg to become an apprentice chocolatier at Arens-Scheer.[5] After his apprenticeship, he was then called up for national service, joining the French Navy where he served on board the cruiser Jeanne d'Arc while it was the flagship.[3] While on board, his cooking impressed the French President François Mitterrand, who gave Lanlard a pair of gold cufflinks.[6] Leaving the Navy, he was recruited by the Roux brothers, Albert and Michel and moved to the UK in 1989. He became their head pastry chef within two years before leaving to set up his own business in 1995.[2][3] Lanlard still maintains links with the Roux family and makes a yearly "pilgrimage" to Michel Roux, Jr.'s Le Gavroche in London.[7] Laboratoire 2000, his first business which opened in 1995, was closed in 2005 when his new venture Cake Boy opened.[3] The shop itself doubles as a cookery school, and is the premises from where Lanlard's custom cake business Savoir Design operates from.[6] It was opened in an area known as Battersea Reach, near Wandsworth Bridge, which Lanlard was familiar with as when he worked with the Roux brothers, it was the same area they were based in at the time.[8]

Among Lanlard's publicised works are a croquembouche for the wedding of Madonna and Guy Ritchie,[6] and wedding cakes for Elizabeth Hurley and Claudia Schiffer; as well as both the first birthday cake of Brooklyn Beckham, son of David Beckham,[9] and the cake for the Queen Mother's 101st birthday which featured two Corgis wearing tiaras.[3]

It was because of his work on Elizabeth Hurley's cake that he was introduced to designer Patrick Cox, and together they opened a Soho-based cupcake bakery called Cox Cookies and Cake. Cox was very specific about the designs on the cakes, and wanted a combination of ideas from Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí. The idea of the store was to be sexy and subversive, in order to avoid competing with Hummingbird Bakery's nearby Soho store.[10] The cakes themselves were produced at Lanlard's Cake Boy and transported daily to Soho.[11]

Lanlard and fellow baker Paul Hollywood pitched a baking television show in the early 2000s, but found that television executives were uninterested in the general concept of a baking show.[3] His television appearances have included guest spots on UKTV Food,the BBC show Girls on Top and ITV's This Morning,[9][12] and he has had his own television shows on Channel 4 called Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard,[13] and Glamour Puds.[14] He has twice been named Continental Patissier of the Year at the British Baking Awards.[5]

Personal life

After moving to the UK, Lanlard lived in Putney, but moved to Battersea in 2004. The house in Battersea had previously been used for eighteen months as the filming location for Channel 4's entertainment show T4.[9] He lives with his partner Paul Newrick.[15]

He has also signed to go on a sub-orbital spaceflight with Virgin Galactic.[6] He has stated in interviews that despite his trade, he doesn't have a sweet tooth and that his weakness is cheese.[16]

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Le Télégramme - Finistère - Mariage princier. Éric Lanlard la touche bretonne 2 mai 2011 " «Le Cake boy»:derrière ce pseudonyme «so british» se cache Éric Lanlard, pâtissier originaire de Plomelin, qui eut la charge, vendredi, ..."
  2. 1 2 "Fashion junkie: Eric Lanlard". The Daily Telegraph (London). 8 June 2005. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sewards, Lisa (23 March 2012). "Baking Mad: He’s baked for everyone from the Queen Mother to Madonna now Eric Lanlard’s passing on his sweet secrets". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Montgomery, Hugh (24 April 2011). "Eric Lanlard: ‘People think a cake is like a stew: that you can add this or that’". The Independent (London). Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  5. 1 2 "Eric Lanlard". Lifestyle Food. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Kensington, Oliver. "Glamour Puds - Eric Lanlard". BBC Lifestyle. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  7. ↑ "Interview with master patissier Eric Lanlard". HotCourses. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  8. ↑ "Boy, does this celebrity chef make good cakes". Wandsworth Guardian. 3 December 2007. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  9. 1 2 3 Spencer, Nikki (7 February 2008). "Eric Lanlard can have his cake and eat it". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  10. ↑ Morris, Andy (28 August 2010). "Patrick Cox on cake and cookies". GQ. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  11. ↑ Stephens, Sarah (23 February 2011). "Eric Lanlard: Fabulous baker boy". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  12. ↑ Kahrmann, Alice (31 January 2012). "Interview with Eric Lanlard, Master Pâtissier". The Good Web Guide. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  13. ↑ Stewart, Victoria (29 March 2012). "Down the cakehole: Eric Lanlard cakes". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  14. ↑ "Interview with Eric Lanlard". Channel 4. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  15. ↑ Spencer, Nikki (7 February 2008). "Eric Lanlard can have his cake and eat it". The Daily Telegraph (London).
  16. ↑ Leigh, Rob (8 May 2011). "Eric Lanlard: Profile of the master patissier and Rocky road fridge cake recipe". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 30 March 2012.

External links

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