About Chef Florian Bellanger
Florian is an Executive Pastry Chef / Co-Owner of Mad-Mac, "The Authentic French Macarons and Madeleines", serving Retail, Food Service and the Hospitality industry, Mad Mac was founded in 2006 and has been quickly recognized as a leader in quality and innovation on the Macaron market.
Florian is also a permanent judge on the Food Network's TV series Cupcake Wars, over 9 seasons and 115 episodes to date.
Previously, Chef Bellanger was the Fauchon's Executive Pastry Chef in the United States; Florian Bellanger headed a team of Twenty Four pastry chefs to create the finest pastries, special occasion cakes, cookies, unique ice creams and sorbets for the legendary French epicurean emporium's Tea Salon and flagship store in New York City. He has come full circle after serving Fauchon in Paris under the Command of Famous Executive Pastry Chef Pierre Herme from 1991 to 1994, as well as Executive Pastry Chef for Fauchon Flagship in Qatar from 1994 to 1996.
At Fauchon NYC, Florian's innovations were evident in such tradition-shattering creations as éclairs flavored with orange zest, passion fruit or coconut; raspberry marshmallow cake; Toulouse violet ice cream and raspberry-chili pepper sorbet; and lavish three-dimensional holiday cakes and wedding cakes for which he continuously creates new molds and recipes.
A veteran of pastry kitchens from around the world, Florian was Eric Ripert’s pastry chef of Le Bernardin from 1996 to 2001, where his desserts, described as “light and dreamy” by Ruth Reichl of The New York Times, helped bring the restaurant to its four-star status. In addition, he was the Pastry Chef in the French Military Officer’s Club in French Guyana.
Growing up in Paris, Florian knew from an early age that his career would take a culinary path. Not only did he indulge in decadent cakes and pastries as a child, but he often spent his free afternoons in the kitchen, baking them for his family. While a childhood allergy to chocolate did ironically prevent him from relishing such treats for nearly six years, he fortuitously outgrew it and dedicated himself to the art of pastries even more passionately. At the age of fifteen, Florian applied to Paris’s prestigious pastry school, L’Ecole de Paris des Métiers de la Table. Although his application was rejected because he was a year too young to enroll, in 1983 the future chef was accepted and graduated with an emphasis in pastry and a specialty in chocolate and ice cream.