Dominique Ansel’s Beauty-Driven Approach to Pastry
Pastry chef Dominique Ansel knows his way around a beautiful dessert. The 48-year-old French culinary guru is the creator of some of the most viral sweet treats across America, from the Cronut, a croissant-doughnut hybrid that had hundreds of people lining up for hours when it first launched in 2013, to frozen s’mores, Cookies Shots and the DKA (Dominique’s Kouign Amann), which he confesses is his personal favorite.
That is all to say: when Ansel works on a new product, the masses pay attention.
Case in point: a new custom linzer cookie inspired by pink nail colors, created in collaboration with beauty brand Sally Hansen and celebrity nail artists Kim Truong and Mei Kawajiri, who have worked with the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kerry Washington and FKA Twigs, among others.
The new cookie—set to launch this Thursday, February 5—is made with edible food coloring and glitter and it will be available at the Dominique Ansel Bakery on Spring Street, as well as for nationwide shipping.
Although, at first impact, a cookie inspired by a nail color sounds off-the-mark for Ansel, the pastry chef notes that beauty-related products have always been a big inspiration to him.
“I have always looked at fashion, art and beauty and translated it to food,” Ansel tells Observer. “It’s not always obvious. You have to break it down. Color can be a great source of inspiration and, when it comes to fashion, I look at the dress, the shape, the pattern. Beauty, on the other hand, is something that makes you feel good—and so is food.”
How appealing a pastry looks also serves the social media-savvy audience that many businesses rely on when looking for customers—a fact that isn’t lost on Ansel.
“The industry has changed, and we have changed as well, because there are new expectations and new things that people enjoy,” he says. “You can’t do the same thing forever. I remember the pastries I made 15 years ago when I first opened a bakery—they’re completely different from what I make today. They’re lighter, use a lot less sugar, are a bit healthier and more visually appealing. The generation consuming these is changing and we have to embrace that to make sure we stay relevant.”
Pastry shops in general are visual microcosms that rely on a treat’s beauty to attract patrons.
“In restaurants, servers can tell you the beautiful stories behind why things are made a certain way but when you have a bakery, you don’t have that luxury,” says Ansel. “Pastries are static. They’re in a pastry case. People are on line so the [treats] have to look significantly different to make you stop, think and say ‘what goes into making this?'”
That attention to detail is also what Ansel looks for when tasting fellow pastry chefs’ creations, ultimately informing his own list of favorite treats around town.
“I have a soft spot for tiramisu, and Bar Primi has one of the best in the city,” he says. “It’s just excellent every time I eat it—soft, light, simple. I do love simplicity. It’s how I indulge myself, and tiramisu always does it.”
In many ways, that devotion to simplicity captures Ansel’s own approach, which always leads to a visually striking but never overworked pastry, one rooted in technique yet open to inspiration from anywhere—even a bottle of nail polish. His sweet dishes may have changed throughout the years, but Ansel’s passion for the art of baking and his commitment to process have remained constant: a through-line that helps explain why his work continues to resonate, decade after decade.