Eric Kayser: How His Bread Conquered The World | French Gourmet Entrepreneurs

Eric Kayser, a renowned French baker, has opened a new boulangerie in Manhattan, attracting crowds eager to taste his renowned pastries and bread. With a flair for business, Kayser offers free meals at openings to generate buzz, and his bakeries feature typically French products. Despite his humble beginnings, Kayser now heads an empire with bakeries across the globe. He emphasizes quality, using natural sourdough and innovative techniques to produce top-notch baked goods. His expansion into the US market faces challenges, but his dedication to excellence continues to win over customers and prestigious clients, cementing his reputation as a symbol of French gastronomy.

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Eric Kayser came all the way from France to inaugurate his new boulangerie in the heart of Manhattan. You’re very lucky today. We have Eric Kayser himself for the opening. We’re very happy to welcome you, so please come, because we’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Welcome to the house of Kayser.

Lunch is provided for the occasion. A great publicity stunt to create a buzz throughout the neighborhood. Thanks to this, we’re going to eat good food. I can’t wait. Nice to meet you. The French baker has a head for business. Thank you. Pleased to meet you. Hello, how are you?

Offering free meals at every opening is his idea. We have to close every two or three minutes, otherwise people fight to get products, so we have to manage. But it’s fun. Oh, my God, it’s crazy. What would you recommend? Sailer sweater, obligatory berets for sales staff and, above all, typically

French products on the shelves. The French Touch, in the heart of New York. ? Just smile! Americans love it, and that’s all there is to it. With the sign behind it, it’s perfect. How are you? Hello. Look, there’s a line a mile long. All the way to the…

There’s a line. And we start to… We get yelled at by the buildings. Because all the entrances are blocked. But there won’t be enough for everyone. Dozens of Americans leave disappointed, without their sandwich. Their consolation prize, a free coffee for the next day. This boutique is the brand’s fifteenth bakery in New York.

It has set up shop in some of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods. Central Park, Times Square and Fifth Avenue, by the Empire State Building. This fifty-three-year-old entrepreneur exports French bread around the world. In just twenty years, he’s spun his web from Japan to Mexico, from Dubai to Cambodia. And each time,

He puts on a show. Today, he’s the head of an empire. Two hundred bakeries in twenty-six countries and sales of over three hundred million euros. That’s enough to earn him a place in France’s top five hundred fortunes. And yet, this Alsatian comes from a modest family. He grew up in his father

Jean-Claude’s bakery, following in the family tradition. Degree in bakery, then compagnon du devoir. After his studies, he became a trainer for ten years, teaching other bakers the secrets of good French bread. This experience gave him a taste for adventure. Twenty-one years ago, he opened his first bakery in Paris’s Latin Quarter.

I remember the first customer who came in. At the time, we spoke in franc and asked her if she wanted a large loaf of bread. And I gave her the loaf and then, I don’t know, I asked her the price and she gave me back the loaf. I said no,

It’s too expensive, she didn’t want it. I was a bit surprised. Forty francs, or six euros a loaf of bread. Right from the start, the baker was offering top-of-the-range products, more expensive than the average. At the time, he was one of the first to ban industrial yeast to rediscover the

Taste of old-fashioned bread. Hello Christophe. Anthony, how are you? His secret? Natural sourdough. A mixture of water, flour and honey that is added to the dough. The sourdough allows it to swell naturally, giving the bread more flavor. And to make this sourdough in large quantities, the boss has developed this machine.

It’s a small revolution, enabling the craftsmen to start kneading at just four a.m., instead of the twenty-three hours it used to take. You have to bend down every day, mix everything by hand, it’s often large quantities, it can be fifty, sixty kilos of mass to mix by hand, it can be very

Complicated for the back, but it makes it easier all the same. All the work afterwards is much simpler. We can make many more types of product. So to make five thousand baguettes, we’re going to need three or four bakers, whereas before we’d have needed more than twice as many.

The head of the company applies this large-scale production to his twenty-five Parisian stores and seven provincial bakeries. Every day, thirty-eight thousand baguettes leave the bakeries and are sold for one euro fifteen each. But it’s on sandwiches that he makes his biggest profit. Today, Elodie, his right-hand woman, is coming up with new recipes.

These sandwiches have to be melted into pastry bags to treat her to a pastry that leans on the end. If you catch it like that, everything falls out. It looks nice, but… It’s complicated to catch in real life. Complicated to catch in real life. Right.

In Japan, we learn that in real life, everything has to fit inside the mouth. It has to fit inside your mouth. And then, if you want to put it in your mouth, it’s complicated. Will half of it be on the floor?

Size, taste? None of these sandwiches are to her liking. We’ll have to start all over again to please her. Negotiations are tough. You’re trying to… Oh no, when he says no, it’s no, we don’t insist. As he says, we have the right

To disagree. But then you have to decide. And he decides. He’s the head of the company. Once validated, sandwiches will be sold for between four and eight euros. By the thousands. As will baguettes, pastries and salads. This store has little in common with the neighborhood bakery.

Firstly, in terms of quantity. Here, when we buy butter, it comes in hundreds of tons. At six euros a kilo from his regular supplier, that’s one euro less than the market price. An appreciable saving of one hundred and thirty thousand euros a year.

Here’s butter in two hundred and fifty gram packs for the housewife. We also produce five or ten kilos for manufacturers like Kayser. The company is one of the Verneuil dairy’s biggest customers. This extra-fine quality butter will be used for all Parisian viennoiseries. Approximately how many tons? five tons every week?

Is it normally fifty to one hundred kilos a week? that’s a hundred times more butter than a conventional baker. An industrial shift about which the boss prefers to remain discreet. It’s the artisanal side that he prefers to emphasize. Under the watchful eye of his right-hand woman, Elodie, he invited us to make

Croissants in his historic boutique. So you see, all the lines you see are layers of butter and dough. The butter melts, steam is released, and the dough is impermeable. The steam pushes the dough, that’s what makes the croissants rise, and that’s how you see the sheets afterwards.

In your other stores, how are your croissants made? Well, that depends. to this ? Could we say we’d done it at the Ivry lab? We have a central lab that works on the same products, but for all the boutiques. Here, in fact, they only make for

Here, as it’s the historic boutique, the first boutique in twenty years. The croissants here are homemade. But for the rest, everything is made in this laboratory in Ivry. Whether it’s homemade or industrial, it’s impossible to say. The head of the company refused us access.

But every morning, twenty thousand frozen viennoiseries leave this factory and are delivered to all the bakeries in Paris, where they are then baked on the spot. On the other side of the Atlantic, semi-industrial or not, the bakery chain remains a symbol of French gastronomy. While the owner is out jogging,

He is stopped by an American couple. They recognized him. Thank you very much. Thank you, that’s very kind. It’s the first time I’ve seen him, but he’s famous. Why is he famous? Because he makes the best pastries in the world. Pistachio tart. It’s fantastic. It’s very, very good, delicious. Thanks, see you soon.

A recognition he owes in part to Yann, one of his best bakers. These are the two iconic towers of the Westside. Yeah. The thirty-three-year-old Frenchman has been working alongside him for eleven years. After Dubai and Abu Dhabi, he is now in charge of the group’s sixty bakeries in the United States.

Shall we do push-ups? ? No ? You’re lazy. Does it wear you out early in the morning? Ah, he wears me out, often you have to keep up with him. We’ll run in the evening, we’ll run in the morning. He does push-ups. No, I’m not that vigorous.

But Yann still has his work cut out for him. In New York alone, ten new boutiques are due to open in the next few months. But it’s hard to find qualified staff in the land of burgers and donuts. Delighted. Today, he’s hoping to recruit twenty-seven-year-old Ellie. She already knows how

To make a French baguette, having worked for a competitor, which is quite rare among Americans. Yann will first test her on bread baking. She has four hours to prove herself. Do you really want this job? ? Yes, I do.

? I haven’t made baguettes in two years, even though it’s my passion. I miss it. That’s why I want this job. Does it stress you out? Yes, a little. we do four hours of testing. Sometimes it can be half an hour. If we realize that it’s too complicated, that we’re really

Too far away from what we’re doing, we shorten the trials. But sometimes, yes, we have big disasters. Despite her experience, Ellie has just forgotten the essentials. Okay, always flour. New American bakers have to fit the mold. To help, Yann calls on Japanese chefs.

And it’s not by chance, because in Japan, the company has thirty-two boutiques and has already trained over a hundred bakers like Masaki. ? Masaki ? So yes, you’re going to cut the paper. Okay? In terms of English, between the two, it’s not quite right. Okay? Hop.

With Masaki, it’s easy. We communicate with our hands, we communicate with body language. So we talk to each other, but we always manage to understand each other. I really like Eric Kayser. I have all his books at home. I’m a big fan. Ellie successfully completes her test.

My baguettes are not too bad. Except for one that’s a little overdone. But that’s not so bad, because it’s been a long time since I’ve made one. At the end of the trials, Yann retains an average of one candidate out of five. I’m happy to offer you a chef position at Maison Kaiser.

That’s just great. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Ellie will start next week and earn two thousand one hundred euros net per month, just like a baker in France. Equivalent salaries, but baguettes sold for three times more than in France. In New York, the French baguette is considered a top-of-the-range product.

The cob is three fifty. Three dollars and fifty cents a baguette. To consolidate his image, the businessman works with prestigious clients. When he’s in New York, he makes a point of delivering his bread in person, just to keep up his address book. Wow, we’re glad we came. How are you

Eric Ripper, three Michelin stars, buys five hundred rolls a day from Kayser. You haven’t been here in a while. Yeah, it’s good. And in terms of quality, he’s uncompromising. we’re in the cook’s bakery. That’s the… We don’t have a lot of baguettes. Aren’t they pretty? They’re beautiful. Petite baguette. We inspect every loaf.

Sesame-basilis. Yeah. This one’s very popular And I’m hiding one, look. I take it out. And done. Hey, Yann, you almost… he’s the only one. That’s right, it’s the dog who gets on top. I’m saved. No, there’s two of them, so here. Here, Yann, here you go. So, what’s the problem?

Well, the problem is that there’s too much flour here. So the bread won’t be as good, because there’s flour that’s… So the bread won’t be accepted. And what we do, we put aside. We call Yann. We tell him, listen, we’re taking a photo. We say, “Here, Yann, here’s the bread. is this.

And then, we tell him, there are two loaves that don’t fit. So he goes, OK, two loaves. And on the bill, so many loaves, less eggs. It’s a very positive relationship, but at the same time, there’s no give and take. After New York and its Michelin-starred restaurants, the baker will set out to

Conquer the rest of the United States. New boutiques will open in Washington, California and Florida. These French buns have not finished exporting themselves.