Chef Guillemette Bouche-Erbsen

guillemette-bouche-erbsen-1Chef Guillemette was born in France near Paris. Her family’s roots are in Bretagne, the
Western part of France that produces exquisite butter. She spent most of her childhood living abroad, in the Netherlands, Italy and Tunisia.

Living in all these different places with different cultures led her to discover a variety of ingredients, tastes and food cultures at a young age. It also made her realize very soon
that in every culture, sweet foods, whatever they look like, always bring people together
for a party, a celebration. People give cookies and cakes as a gift, and desserts are
often a way to treat friends and family or to make a good impression on strangers. They
have one mission only : make people happy.

This led Chef Guillemette to Culinary School. After a first training in Cuisine, she went on to
learn the techniques and secrets of French Pastry and graduated from the famous
Ferrandi Culinary School in Paris in 2007.

Chef Guillemette worked in different restaurants and catering companies in Paris
for a few years, before going back to school to study Tourism and Gastronomy. She had
a lot of fun writing her Master’s degree Memoir about Pastry Tourism in Paris.

Before and after going back to school, she spent more than 6 years teaching pastry in
Paris in different cooking schools and in private homes; teaching in English and in French;
playing with flour, butter, sugar and eggs; talking about the French food
culture; and sharing her passion. She also worked in the pedagogical department at Le
Cordon Bleu Paris for a while, and created classes and food tours for La Cuisine Paris
for five years.

Chef Guillemette believes that baking (and cooking) from scratch should be part of
every child’s education as it teaches childre to respect ingredients, seasons, the hard work of others, and our own health. She loves to show how easy and rewarding it can be to  master a technique that looks intimidating. She loves to teach pastry to children,
share her passion about food, and teach them skills that will last a lifetime.

Chef Guillemette moved to the Bay Area with her husband and toddler in March 2016.
In July, she created “L’École Gourmande”, a movable French Pastry school that comes
into your kitchen for classes in French and in English. She is excited about this new
sweet adventure!