Florian Bellanger

Florian Bellanger grew up in Paris, France and spent much of his free afternoons baking for his family.

However, a childhood chocolate allergy prevented him from enjoying sweets and desserts for 6 years which had temporarily discouraged his desire to bake.

At age 15, Florian Bellanger applied to one of Paris's prestigious pastry schools, the École de Paris des Métiers de la Table ("Paris school of table skills"), but was rejected for being a year too young. By 1983, he graduated from the school with a specialization in pastry cooking and a specialty in chocolate and ice cream.

Ironically, the pastry chef now says chocolate is his favorite ingredient and admires its versatility, claiming it is "fun" and something "taken for granted.

Before starting his own company, Bellanger was the executive pastry chef at Fauchon and oversaw 24 other pastry chefs at its Tea Salon flagship store in New York City, a "legendary French Epicurean emporium" of cakes, cookies, ice creams and sorbets. There, he became known for creating inventive combinations of flavors outside of the norms of tradition, such as éclairs flavored with orange zest, passion fruit or coconut and raspberry marshmallow cake, Toulouse violet ice cream and raspberry-chili pepper sorbet.

 From 1991 to 1994, he was under the command of worldwide famous French pastry chef Pierre Hermé and was also the executive pastry chef for Fauchon's flagship store in Qatar from 1994 to 1996.

From 1996 to 2001, Florian was the executive pastry chef of Eric Ripert’s 3 stars Michelin restaurant Le Bernardin in NY. He had largely contributed to the great success of the restaurant with unique exclusive desserts and an amazing sense of culinary art.
Chef Bellanger is a member of City Harvest's Food Council and a guest chef at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, New York. He also spends his free time donating to charities such as the Anthony Spinazzola Foundation, the Wolfgang Puck Charity and the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation.

Bellanger was named one of the 10 Best Pastry Chefs in America in 2004 and 2003 by Pastry Art & Design magazine. In 2000 and 2001, the James Beard Foundation acclaimed Bellanger's accomplishments with a nomination for "Outstanding Pastry Chef." He is a judge on Food Network's new competition series Cupcake Wars and has been featured on many networks including CNN, NBC and Martha Stewart Living. Bellanger's cake, chocolate and pastry works have received attention in various magazines and publications including House Beautiful, Martha Stewart Weddings, Forbes, Brides, Modern Bride, People magazine, The New York Times, InStyle magazine, Pastry Art & Design, Food Arts, Chocolatier Magazine, The Nibble, Delta Sky and New York Magazine, and PastryScoop.com.

Florian Bellanger is one of the chef partner of madmac.