Stephanie Vastel

She took an interest in cookery rather late, aged 26, and so she had to learn much faster. She went to Paris from her native Normandy to study at the Ferrandi School, and divided her time between studies and in-house training at top bakeries such as Arnaud Larher's, or the Pâtisserie des Rêves bakery. After a two-year spell in New Zealand, she was asked to join the pastrymaking team at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Paris, and then left to join its Barcelona counterpart as head pastry chef. Her penultimate stint was Sosa Ingredients. She now works as advisor and instructor at Valrhona, and at Ecole Internationale de Boulangerie.