Tasting the desserts of ‘Top Chef’ contender Feybesse
Monique and Paul Feybesse of Tarts de Feybesse have two criteria when making a dessert: “One, it has to be delicious. Two, it has to be absolutely gorgeous,” says Monique Feybesse.
Having had the opportunity to sample their wares, this journalist can confirm the Vallejo-based duo are serious about following the rules. Now the world will see if it’s enough to carry Tarts de Feybesse to culinary super-stardom, as Monique makes her debut on the latest season of Top Chef on March 3.
Her entry into the Top Chef universe was “honestly very random,” she says. The husband-wife pair was taking a day trip to San Jose and for some reason watched a few clips from the show. “I remember joking around with Paul saying that we should just apply for the fun of it,” she says. “We filled out the application during our car ride and I received the callback in the next few days. I cannot tell you how surprised I was, because I was not expecting anything at all.”
They had a family huddle to decide what to do about their bakeshop, which they started as a side project when the food industry shut down during the pandemic. “When the final interviews came, and I was one of the chosen candidates, I had doubts that I should even participate because I felt guilty at the thought of leaving my two young kids and Paul to run Tarts de Feybesse,” she says. “My entire family pushed me to compete because I had their full support and help.”
Was cooking on Top Chef as brutal as it looks? Pretty much.
“It is harder than you think — the clock is real!” she says. “In a normal restaurant, you have the time to really edit your dishes. If it’s not right, it’s not going to be sent out to the customer. What was most challenging for me was sticking to an idea all the way
through the end of a challenge. I’m so used to R&D and editing as I go whenever I create dishes!”
Monique Feybesse is actually one of two Bay Area residents to enter this season; the other is Robert Hernandez, a private chef in San Francisco. “What surprised me the most while participating was how all of the chefs got along,” Hernandez says. “Of course we were all there to compete, but we were all supportive of each other. We work in a very egocentric industry and it was refreshing to meet such amazing people.”
Be it true or not, there’s a widespread perception that being a pastry chef is a kiss of doom on “Top Chef.” But Feybesse — who, as it happens, was trained in savory cooking and has cooked savory in Michelin-starred restaurants worldwide — doesn’t sound worried.
“Pastry is such a different world. It definitely adds to my versatility as a chef,” she says. “It can also make you a bit comfortable knowing that you have an edge, because
you have so many different ways you can think of a challenge. Too many options can be a blessing or a curse.”
Folks wanting to try
Tarts de Feybesse’s creations can order through their website or pick them up at several local shops. (Note they’re on break through March 16.)
We tried two desserts, starting with a ParisBrest. It looks like a massive doughnut stuffed skyhigh with pastry cream. It’s studded with crunchy nuts and hidden within is a melting praline that’ll bring you straight to New Orleans. Oh, and the whole thing glitters with gold dust like a giant wedding ring.
“Paris-Brest is a very rich classic dessert in France. You will not find it at a lot of places here and it’s very difficult to find a good one,” Feybesse says. “It’s basically a ring of choux dough that’s filled with a nut-praline soft buttercream, currently with macadamia nuts. If you’re into texture, this one’s for you.”
The second looks like nothing more than a gigantic Snickers bar. Cut through it, however, and you’ll find a marbled interior with a pipeline of banana cream shot through. We thought it was a riff on banana bread, but we were wrong.
“We initially wanted to create a take on the classic marble cake in France, but we also wanted to incorporate a flavor that everyone was nostalgic for,” she says. “Banana cake was an idea but we always think, ‘How can we make this over the top, where it would be delicious and technical at the same time?’ So the banana cake turned into a marbled banana cake, with roasted banana caramel, dipped in chocolate and crushed banana chips.”
See Feybesse in action on “Top Chef” on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo TV.