#14 From boredom in Finance to passion as a pastry chef
An emotional conversation with Emilie about her passion for food, about her childhood memories cooking with her grandmother and about her challenging and successful journey to pursue it.
Emilie changed her career from being in Finance in Paris to working in the food industry. She's now the pastry Executive Chef in a luxury gastronomy brand in Germany.
She explains how her love for food was transmitted as an heritage from her grandparents in her family house in the South of France. She also explains what makes a perfect pain au chocolat.
And of course she tells the story of her transition. She shares what she called her revelation that she got while attending a class at the famous Ducasse school.
How she quit her job to become a pastry teacher herself, the difficulties she had to overcome and the years it took to clarify how she could do what she really wanted to do in food and in pastry.
Listen to her story here or on your usual podcast player.
Show notes
Emilie’s LinkedIn’s profile
[00:02:34] Grew up in a family where every meal should be a celebration
[00:03:21] Her emotional memories of the preparations and the meals with her grandmother and grandfather
[00:04:39] How she cooked with her grandmother recipes elaborated by her great-great grandmother
[00:05:44] Growing up tasting all the different flavours, products given by her grandmother
[00:07:26] Her love for eating comes from the emotions it triggers in her
[00:08:54] Her passion in her job today comes from being able to express herself through pastry
[00:09:27] Big Gap - 2'57[00:09:27] How she expresses herself through her pastry: the right recipe & the right product and respecting the process
[00:11:36] Improving versus accepting that your recipe is "perfect".
[00:12:21] Scaling perfection is a very challenging
[00:13:00] What makes a perfect pain au chocolat? The 5-sense test
[00:14:54] Not going into food because of her not seeing her restaurant owner father much
[00:16:02] Dreading going to work, bored at work, feeling like she was missing something. Started cooking to fill her void.
[00:17:51] She got a Revelation while attending a half-day pastry course at the Ducasse School
[00:19:39] After 10 years of cooking as a hobby, made the jump to doing her pastry exam
[00:20:47] Getting into business partnership with her pastry teacher
[00:22:05] the hardest part was not the beginning of her new journey, but after two years with lots of fear
[00:23:01] Wearing many hats as a small business owner made the experience very uncomfortable
[00:25:52] Moved to Germany with her 2 girls to be with her partner
[00:27:02] Starting her pastry business in Germany from her kitchen thanks to serendipitous encounters
[00:28:26] Organically growing her business in Germany
[00:29:53] Hitting a wall of fear as she got pregnant and working really hard
[00:30:49] Video Clip [00:30:49] Video clip - The big storm of life that she went through
[00:32:33] She knew that she could bring value - but struggled to convince people that somebody with hybrid profile can help. Asking for help!
[00:33:56] How it feels when you are full of fear and still have dreams
[00:35:14] What to do when things get difficult in a career transition?