Leading French pastry chef Nicolas Bacheyre, executive pastry chef at Un Dimanche à Paris, the country’s foremost chocolate shop, pâtisserie, restaurant, lounge and chocolate salon, wowed a select group of chefs at a recent event in Dubai, hosted by the European Union and the Centre National Interprofessionel de l’Economie Laitière (CNIEL).

Taking place at Carine, Emirates Golf Club, Bacheyre was on hand to highlight the very finest cream imported from France, in front of chefs from the UAE, thanks to its creation: Le Pur, a delicate totally white pastry, consisting of vanilla cremeux, genoa bread, and white chocolate ganache.

Chef Bacheyre said: “Every time I come to Dubai it’s always pleasure to showcase the techniques and methods to create these wonderful pastries. There has undoubtedly been an increase in the number of restaurants and chefs incorporating the French pastry style to their menus and that in turn has seen a significant increase in the number of chefs using French cream, which is obviously an integral part of the recipe.”

The UAE is a key market for the industry and imported 2,000 tonnes of French cream in 2016, although this is behind China, which is top importer with 15,000 tonnes annually. Saudi Arabia stands at 5,000 tonnes imported annually.

It comes amid an increasing proliferation of French chefs operating in the country and a growing popularity of French cream in the service industry and retail outlets due to its undisputed taste and quality.

Laurent Damiens, communication director of CNIEL, said: “The UAE continues to be a very important market for French cream producers. As the number of restaurants increases, thanks to the burgeoning tourism industry in the region and the forthcoming Expo 2020 event, we are seeing an increasing number of restaurants using the finest ingredients France has to offer, most prominently, cream.”

It’s a huge market in the UAE, not only in business to business, which takes up 75 percent of imports, but retail currently accounts for 25% and this is growing more and more as people are increasingly using cream in their recipes, not just for pastries, but in their general cooking.”

As part of the growing demand for experienced pastry chefs from all corners of the world, CNIEL runs a series of French pastry training courses in the UAE and KSA, co-financed by the European Union, which are set to run throughout 2018.

In all of its forms – as pastry cream, whipped, chantilly, stiffened, UHT, custard, reversed – cream has become an indispensable ingredient to the entire pastry world, today more than ever.