“It’s small, it’s round, it’s something very easy, very accessible. It’s still greedy, but it’s a very small sin because it weighs 18 grams...” The Ladurée macaroons described by David Holder, the CEO of the house, you know… At the origin of an international chain which today sells its pastries all over the world, there is a tea room a little old-fashioned in the beautiful districts of Paris. It was his father, Francis Holder, who bought it in 1993. Starting from scratch, this baker founded a dynasty as discreet as it was powerful. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, it was ranked 40th among French fortunes.
The tea room specializes in macarons. Father and son are going to make it an international chain. “This idea, which was dear to Francis Holder at the start, of highlighting a certain type of French art of living, workedsalutes Charles Znaty, president of Medef Paris, who worked with the Holders at the start of the Ladurée adventure. The facts came to meet his vision.” The patriarch entrusted his eldest son with the controls of what was initially only a small subsidiary. David Holder was to make it a worldwide success.
The silly recipe for a small cake sold for up to 3 euros each
It’s that the little round cake is full of qualities…”There is no creative limitenthuses the dandy-looking CEO, because perfumes, I can create one for you a day, according to inspirations, trends, etc.“And then, the recipe is very simple: egg white, sugar, ground almonds, and that’s it. A very simple dessert… which sells at Ladurée for up to 3 euros each .
Another significant advantage: you can take it around the world easily. Because the great secret of the Ladurée macaron is that it is systematically frozen after production. Above all, don’t leave it as it comes out of the oven, it would lose all its softness… But it’s still the owner of the house who talks about it best: “This little bakery product loves what I call hibernation. And the chance we have through this hibernation is that when the macaron comes out of the negative cold, it quickly takes on the humidity in the air.“
This symbol of “made in France” is made… in Switzerland
The process has been emulated: “Today, all pastry chefs make macaroons and put them in negative cold for a simple reason: in fact, the finished product, coming out of there, is better.“Not to mention that this frozen macaron can be kept for many weeks… At Ladurée, in Paris, it is stored in a cold room, in boxes ready for delivery.
Ten years ago, the boss had another idea: to have all his macaroons made on a single site. “Further Investigation” of course asked to see it… but David Holder didn’t “never visited, because[il] like the idea that behind Ladurée, there is this mystery around a product which is the flagship product that we have created…“This mystery piqued the curiosity of journalists: they discovered that these millions of macaroons, symbols of “made in France”, are actually made by our neighbors, in Switzerland.
Eexcerpt from “Paul and Ladurée: billionaire bakers”, a document rebroadcast in “Complément d’Enquête” on June 9, 2022.
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