Francois Collet mentored James Satterwhite, Executive Pastry Chef of Charlotte Country Club, early in his career and thus launched a lifelong love for pastry and learning.
I’ve carried this picture with me in every pastry kitchen I have led since 1998. Two of the people in this picture, Jean Banchet and Paul Bocuse are two of the greatest chefs in history. The reason I carry the picture though, is because of the third person, Francois Collet.
Francois has been one of the most important people in my life. After my mom, he’s arguably the most important. He took me under his wing and showed me “the real pastry.” This is what Francois called French pastry as they are supposed to be, not the American translation. Francois answered all my questions—and I constantly had questions. He pushed me. He encouraged me. He changed my life.
I moved to Atlanta in the fall of 1995 after finishing up at the Culinary Institute of America. I had taken a job with a small French wholesale bakery. After the winter season passed, it was terribly slow, so the owner asked me if I wanted to go to work with Francois at Buckhead Bread Company, one of the best pastry shops in America.
Walking into Buckhead Bread Company was like walking into a pastry shop in Europe. I interviewed with Francois and this was the first of many lessons he would teach me. While telling him about my experience I said that I had worked in two places as the pastry chef. Francois got very angry and slapped down on the table very hard and said, “You are not a pastry chef.” I apologized and I thought for sure I had blown the job, but he then, in the end, said he would take me on.
I had no idea at the time how lucky I was to be able to work in his pastry kitchen. Francois had set up the kitchen with the best equipment, in the most efficient way. Seeing this kitchen has stayed with me and assisted me maybe more than anything else professionally. We made everything in this kitchen, viennoiserie, petit gateaux, and tarts—it was a master class every day. I learned about pate a choux. I learned how to make Baba, I learned how to make biscuit and how to build entremets. I learned how to make croissant and puff pastry. I learned how to make the fundamentals of the world of pastry.
I also spent time every day and every week studying pastry outside of work. Every day, I came prepared with a question for Francois. This is a habit I have never abandoned. I spend time every week simply studying the basics of pastry and now instead of asking Francois questions, I ask the questions of myself.
I moved on from that kitchen and eventually became a Pastry Chef in the Ritz-Carlton company, but it was only after Francois told me I was now a Pastry Chef that I really started to believe it.
Each day I work, I try to live up to the standard that Francois set. I always try to work the same, no matter what is happening in my life, no matter how I feel, no matter whether it is busy or slow. I always seek to learn. Francois had an encyclopedic knowledge of pastry. He knew the history of pastry, from the chefs to the origins of individual pastries. He knew about the entire range of products from ice cream, to bread, to breakfast pastry, to chocolates and confections, to entremets, to petit gateaux, to sugar and chocolate décor, and show pieces. As well as knowing the tradition and the history, Francois knew about every trend and what was currently in fashion.
I try to be the kind of chef to others that Francois was to me. As I get older, trying to help others reach their pastry dreams has only gotten more important, as has my appreciation for Francois Collet.
