A letter to Buffalonians
Donation protected
Dear people of Buffalo,
My name is Camille and I’m a pastry chef from France. I moved to Buffalo 2 years ago from New York City where I worked with high-end pastry shops.
Before that, I was working in Paris under numerous high-profile chefs and pastry shops such as Stohrer, which is the oldest pastry shop in Paris founded in 1730 and is still running to this day and the renowned Chef Philip Cotticini. But my life wasn’t always so glamorous.
I was a troubled kid born in the small town of Brittany, France. I was first introduced to cooking by my grandmother when she invited me to the kitchen where we cooked a rabbit together and it was then that I fell in love with the art of cooking.
A few years later, I went to culinary school to chase my passion and to learn everything there was to know about the culinary world and this is where I fell in love with the art of making pastries and baking.
I wanted to work for the best pastry shop in the world and it didn’t matter where in the world it was, I was prepared to go. I wanted to pursue my dream so, with my backpack, I left for Paris and arrived at the side door of Stohrer to join their team to become a pastry chef, I left everything that I had behind and I wasn’t going to leave until I got the job there. Stohrer, as I mentioned earlier, is the oldest pastry shop in Paris and dates back to 1730 and it is still running to this day.
They wanted to test my abilities so they worked the hell out of me for the next three days and afterward they agreed to hire me and I got to work. After a while, I hopped around multiple Micheline star restaurants and pastry shops and the work was extremely demanding. I was sometimes working from 7 am to 1 am in the morning and the pay was horrible.
I stacked up a reputation within the pastry community in Paris as the guy that got the job done and was really fast with his work and that caught the attention of Chef Philip Cotticini, who invented the concept of a dessert in a glass and he asked me to come work for him in his new pastry shop that he was opening.
Throughout these experiences and working for different pastry shops with different work environments and demand, my knowledge of the industry grew exponentially. Slowly, life got better and I was making more money.
In 2014, an opportunity was given to me to move to New York City to work in a high-end pastry shop and I took it. In New York City, I learned a lot more about the business side of running a pastry shop. That is also the place where I happened to meet the love of my life, my wife Lexi. After about 4 years of living in New York City, Lexi was pregnant with our first-born and we decided that New York City would be too expensive for us to live in with a newborn baby and so we decided to move to Lexi’s hometown of Buffalo, New York.
Here, I finally mustered up the courage and in June of 2018, I opened my very own pastry shop and cafe, called Pastry By Camille in the heart of Hertel Avenue and we soon became a go-to spot for many and are our now renowned macarons and crepes became our best selling pastry items.
My only goal with this pastry shop is to enable the people of Buffalo to experience and enjoy the French food culture and pastries right here in their hometown and saving you the trouble of going all the way to France.
With my years of experience working with award winning chefs and pastry shops, I personally make sure that every item that we make is only the best that we have to offer and nothing less.
Fast track a few years later, I know have my own pastry shop that you guys love so much. But now I am facing some challenges with my extended green card and because of it I can’t get a loan nor a new line of credit. We start our bakery with what we found in thrift stores and now we want to make our pastry shop even better and make more macarons. With new machinery we can have 15 flavors of macarons and have them available all the time as we will be able to make them faster and cheaper.
We would love for anyone to come to our space and watch the making of the crepes with security: beyond a window. A possibility for patrons to eat at the windows and us sharing your meal, by making in front of your eyes while you eating. We want to enable our guest to be able to enjoy the full experience of the authentic French pastry cuisine.
Please Buffalo, I’m in need of your support and your love, more than ever.
We created a GofundMe page for this cause and t would mean the world to me and my family if you have any amount to make this dream a reality.
Tee shirt Frenchie
Sweat Shirt & hats will be given to the donors
My name is Camille and I’m a pastry chef from France. I moved to Buffalo 2 years ago from New York City where I worked with high-end pastry shops.
Before that, I was working in Paris under numerous high-profile chefs and pastry shops such as Stohrer, which is the oldest pastry shop in Paris founded in 1730 and is still running to this day and the renowned Chef Philip Cotticini. But my life wasn’t always so glamorous.
I was a troubled kid born in the small town of Brittany, France. I was first introduced to cooking by my grandmother when she invited me to the kitchen where we cooked a rabbit together and it was then that I fell in love with the art of cooking.
A few years later, I went to culinary school to chase my passion and to learn everything there was to know about the culinary world and this is where I fell in love with the art of making pastries and baking.
I wanted to work for the best pastry shop in the world and it didn’t matter where in the world it was, I was prepared to go. I wanted to pursue my dream so, with my backpack, I left for Paris and arrived at the side door of Stohrer to join their team to become a pastry chef, I left everything that I had behind and I wasn’t going to leave until I got the job there. Stohrer, as I mentioned earlier, is the oldest pastry shop in Paris and dates back to 1730 and it is still running to this day.
They wanted to test my abilities so they worked the hell out of me for the next three days and afterward they agreed to hire me and I got to work. After a while, I hopped around multiple Micheline star restaurants and pastry shops and the work was extremely demanding. I was sometimes working from 7 am to 1 am in the morning and the pay was horrible.
I stacked up a reputation within the pastry community in Paris as the guy that got the job done and was really fast with his work and that caught the attention of Chef Philip Cotticini, who invented the concept of a dessert in a glass and he asked me to come work for him in his new pastry shop that he was opening.
Throughout these experiences and working for different pastry shops with different work environments and demand, my knowledge of the industry grew exponentially. Slowly, life got better and I was making more money.
In 2014, an opportunity was given to me to move to New York City to work in a high-end pastry shop and I took it. In New York City, I learned a lot more about the business side of running a pastry shop. That is also the place where I happened to meet the love of my life, my wife Lexi. After about 4 years of living in New York City, Lexi was pregnant with our first-born and we decided that New York City would be too expensive for us to live in with a newborn baby and so we decided to move to Lexi’s hometown of Buffalo, New York.
Here, I finally mustered up the courage and in June of 2018, I opened my very own pastry shop and cafe, called Pastry By Camille in the heart of Hertel Avenue and we soon became a go-to spot for many and are our now renowned macarons and crepes became our best selling pastry items.
My only goal with this pastry shop is to enable the people of Buffalo to experience and enjoy the French food culture and pastries right here in their hometown and saving you the trouble of going all the way to France.
With my years of experience working with award winning chefs and pastry shops, I personally make sure that every item that we make is only the best that we have to offer and nothing less.
Fast track a few years later, I know have my own pastry shop that you guys love so much. But now I am facing some challenges with my extended green card and because of it I can’t get a loan nor a new line of credit. We start our bakery with what we found in thrift stores and now we want to make our pastry shop even better and make more macarons. With new machinery we can have 15 flavors of macarons and have them available all the time as we will be able to make them faster and cheaper.
We would love for anyone to come to our space and watch the making of the crepes with security: beyond a window. A possibility for patrons to eat at the windows and us sharing your meal, by making in front of your eyes while you eating. We want to enable our guest to be able to enjoy the full experience of the authentic French pastry cuisine.
Please Buffalo, I’m in need of your support and your love, more than ever.
We created a GofundMe page for this cause and t would mean the world to me and my family if you have any amount to make this dream a reality.
Tee shirt Frenchie
Sweat Shirt & hats will be given to the donors
Organizer
Camille Le Caer
Organizer
Buffalo, NY
