Dominique Ansel facts for kids
The chef Ansel in March 2014
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| Born | 1978 (age 42–43) Beauvais, France |
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Current restaurant(s)
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Dominique Ansel (born 1978) is a French-American pastry chef and owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. He is best known for his invention of the cronut, a croissant-donut hybrid that became a phenomenon.
Early life
Raised in a working-class family in Beauvais, a small city north of Paris, Ansel is the youngest of four children. After high school, he apprenticed at local restaurants, first working in savory and then in pastry, gravitating most strongly to the scientific precision of pastry. At age 19, Ansel did his military service in French Guiana as part of a community program teaching locals how to cook.
Career
Ansel has previously served as executive pastry chef at Daniel, a two Michelin star French restaurant in New York City. He later opened Dominique Ansel Bakery in SoHo, Manhattan. His invention of the Cronut in 2013 became a widely publicized phenomenon, being named one of Time Magazine's best inventions of the year.
He was named Best Pastry Chef in the U.S. by the James Beard Awards in 2014.
In April 2015, he opened a second shop in New York, Dominique Ansel Bakery Kitchen, with a menu of made-to-order desserts.
His Dominique Ansel Bakery London shop opened in London's Belgravia neighborhood in September 2016, and he opened a bakery and a restaurant, 189 by Dominique Ansel, in Los Angeles in November 2017.
The World's 50 Best Restaurants awards named Ansel the World's Best Pastry Chef in 2017, making him the youngest and the first pastry chef in America to be bestowed the honor.
In July 2020, Ansel announced that he would be closing the London location of his bakery, along with the Dominique Ansel Treehouse, due to the financial difficulties of operating them during the COVID-19 pandemic. In commemoration of its final month, Ansel promoted limited-time items such as a milk chocolate and banana cronut called "The Last Cronut". On September 9, 2020, Ansel also announced that his Dominique Ansel Bakery location in Los Angeles, along with 189 by Dominique Ansel, would not be reopening.
