foodbitch
Five Questions For Andrea Meyer, Head Macaron Maker, Pastry Chef And Creator Of Bisous Bisous Pâtisserie In The West Village.
Welcome to The Quickie, our new series featuring a short ‘n sweet, quick ‘n dirty interview with a local small business owner, chef or creator.
Like an ideal after-dinner treat, Andrea Meyer of Bisous Bisous Pâtisserie is just the right mix of sugar and spice. We jumped at the opportunity to ask her a few questions about Bisous Bisous and her life in general.
FB: Give us the Bisous Bisous elevator pitch. Where’d it come from, what’s your background and what made you decide to do the macaron thing?
AM: I started Bisous Bisous after years of traveling abroad only to come home to a complete lack of French-style pastries here in Dallas. I’d kicked around the idea of starting my own dessert business for years, but always knew that if I were to do it right, I’d need to go to culinary school and make a total life change. That’s a pretty big shift so it took me some time to make the leap! After my husband and I had a chance to live and work in Paris in 2009, I came home and decided it was time to quit my full time job as a project manager, go to culinary school and begin the journey to create a true French-style patisserie in Dallas, where we could become part of our community and provide a moment of happiness for each of our customers. And maybe most importantly to me, create the best French macarons and have all of them in stock and fresh every day!
FB: What might folks not know about making macarons?
AM: While I think most people know now how difficult they can be, or how technical they are from a pastry perspective, they likely don’t know how much waste there is in producing an item that is at a high enough quality to sell to our customers. From size variations to weather implications, there are a lot of macarons that simply don’t make the cut. And that’s with a full time person who kills it every day churning out thousands of macarons! Not only is that price tag an indication of the ingredients and the skilled labor, it’s also to allow for the times when entire batches can simply miss the mark. I’d rather be out of a flavor (which has never happened, fingers crossed!) than sell something I don’t believe in.
FB: What’s your favorite place to eat out in Dallas?
AM: When I actually have a moment to eat out around Dallas ~ which is rare ~ we almost always wind up at the Grape. The food is always on point, the atmosphere is comfortable, the staff takes good care of us and as a small business owner, I prefer to keep my money going to another small business as much as possible. Brian and Courtney Luscher have created a space that has a consistent vibe with what we try to do ~ allow our guests a space to be relaxed and enjoy themselves and their experience, and I think that’s why I’m drawn there so often.
FB: What’s the latest and greatest thing you’re doing at Bisous Bisous right now?
AM: We’re really excited about two things we’re rolling out now. First is our bi-color croissants which we’ve been working on for a while. We have a green bi-colored Pistachio croissant as well as an orange Pumpkin croissant right now, and we’ll be rolling out a red Pomegranate Orange croissant in December. The second item is our new Freezer to Oven croissants, available now in plain and chocolate. Just pull from the freezer and pop into your pre-heated oven – 20 minutes later you have a croissant just like we make in the shop! It’s taken us a lot of testing in the kitchen and we were finally able to nail it. No leaving anything out overnight or figuring out what egg wash is, just put them on the pan and bake ’em up!
FB: What’s next for Bisous Bisous Pâtisserie and Andrea Meyer?
AM: Looking to 2018, we’re definitely focusing on expansion. Everything from new products to an expanded class program to rolling out our house-made ice creams – the sky’s the limit in the New Year, isn’t it?!
When it comes to macaron towers, clearly so.
Speaking of the sky being the limit, if there’s another local small business you’d like to know more about, The Quickie is here to serve. Like a good cover band, we take requests. Let us know in the comments or message foodbitch directly.
Cover image courtesy of Bisous Bisous Pâtisserie.