Why Francois Payard Will 'Never Complain'

June 2, 2008— -- It's not a love of sweets that inspires pastry chef Francois Payard — rather, it's the malleable properties of sugar that allow his confections to be coaxed into elegant shapes and translated into beautiful artwork on a plate.

"Most of the time when I meet people, you know when I do events, and people ask me do I know how to make good cookies or chocolate mousse, I say, yeah, sometimes I do," said the 41-year-old chef. "But you know pastry is much more than that. ... When I have people asking me do I know how to make cookies I don't get upset, but I don't think people really understand what I do."

Recognized as one of the top pastry chefs in the world, Payard says his career stems from having "grown up" in a pastry shop in his native Nice, France.

"I am a third-generation pastry chef. I grew up seeing my grandpa and my dad making pastry [as well as] my brother," Payard said. "I wasn't allowed to work in my parent's [pastry] shop. I was little and I was a brat. Every time I was helping, I was helping to make chocolate truffles, but I was dirty all over and I was making a more mess than really helping. But my brother was a little older because — he was four years older than me — and he was the one ... working a little more in the shop."

As the second of three children, Payard often felt "lost in the middle," which turned out to be a motivating factor.

At 13, Payard left his childhood home in southern France for an apprenticeship at a restaurant, the beginning of his path toward greatness. He eventually worked his way up to a pastry chef position at La Tour d'Argent, a three-star Michelin restaurant in Paris. Then, in 1990, Payard moved to New York, satisfying both his love of travel and his desire to discover a new culture. He has stayed ever since.

"All my life I thought I was not so good. I lived most my life thinking my brother was better," Payard said. "That's the reason I decided to leave, and maybe that's the reason why I love to challenge myself and why I have done all these things with my life to have a bigger challenge."