Dominique Ansel (born 1978) is a French

pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier (; feminine pâtissière, ) is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, bakeries, b ...

and owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He is best known for his invention of the Cronut, a

croissant A croissant (, ) is a French cuisine, French pastry in a crescent shape made from a laminated yeast dough similar to puff pastry. It is a buttery, flaky, ''viennoiserie'' pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian cuisine, Austrian ''Kifli, ...

- donut hybrid.

Early life

Raised in a working-class family in

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; ) is a town and Communes of France, commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise Departments of France, département, in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, north of Paris. The Communes of France, commune o ...

, a small city an hour north of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Ansel is the youngest of four children. To help support the family, he dropped out of school at 16 and worked at a restaurant. He also trained for three years at the free local culinary school, apprenticing as a cook in various local restaurants – first working in savory and then in pastry, gravitating most strongly to the scientific precision of pastry. At age 19, Ansel did his mandatory year of military service in

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, cooking as part of a community program teaching locals how to cook. When he returned home, he bought a car with his savings and began driving to Paris and dropping off his résumé at bakeries, and quickly got job offers.

Career

In Paris, Ansel worked a year at Pâtisserie Peltier and nearly eight years at Fauchon. In 2006, he moved to the U.S. and served for six years as executive pastry chef at Daniel Boulud's Daniel, a two

Michelin star The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few restaurants in certain geographic ...

French restaurant in New York City. In 2011, he opened Dominique Ansel Bakery in

SoHo, Manhattan SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall (SoHo), and ha ...

. His invention of the Cronut in 2013 became a widely publicized phenomenon, being named one of

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

's best inventions of the year. In 2014, he unveiled another dessert creation, the Chocolate Chip Cookie Milk Shot, which is a warm

chocolate chip cookie A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies are claimed to have originated in the United States in 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chop ...

molded in the shape of a

shot glass A shot glass is a glass originally designed to hold or measure spirits or liquor, which is either imbibed straight from the glass ("a shot") or poured into a cocktail ("a drink"). An alcoholic beverage served in a shot glass and typically consu ...

and filled with milk. He was named Best Pastry Chef in the U.S. by the James Beard Awards in 2014.

The World's 50 Best Restaurants The World's 50 Best Restaurants is a list produced by the UK media company William Reed Ltd, William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant (magazine), Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards are no longer direc ...

awards named Ansel the World's Best Pastry Chef in 2017, at the age of 39. This made him the first pastry chef in America to be bestowed the honor. Other chefs to have won the award include

Jordi Roca Jordi Roca i Fontané (born 28 November 1978, Girona, Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute ...

, Albert Adria, and

Pierre Hermé Pierre Hermé (; born 20 November 1961) is a French pastry chef and chocolatier. He began his career at the age of 14 as an apprentice to Gaston Lenôtre. Called "the Picasso of Pastry" by ''Vogue'', Hermé was awarded the title of World's Best ...

. In November 2017, he opened Dominique Ansel Bakery Los Angeles, at The Grove. The bakery and restaurant closed permanently in September 2020, following the forced restaurant closures during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In January 2021, he opened his first shop in Hong Kong, Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel. He opened Dominique Ansel Workshop, a croissant counter inside of his pastry kitchen, in Manhattan's

Flatiron District The Flatiron District is a neighborhood in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan of New York City, named after the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street (Manhattan), 23rd Street, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Generally ...

in July 2021. On October 21, 2022, he opened Dominique Ansel Las Vegas at

Caesars Palace Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel is situated on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and The Mirage. It is one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks. Caesar ...

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansel, Dominique Living people Pastry chefs Bakers French chefs French male chefs Chefs from New York City Businesspeople from New York City French emigrants to the United States People from Beauvais 1978 births James Beard Foundation Award winners