From Miss Weather forecast to Meilleur Pâtissier through Les Maternelles, Julia makes the delights of the shows she presents. Her guiding thread? Gentleness, whether speaking of childhood or with the greatest pastry chefs. Encounter with a confirmed gourmand who, from her Italian origin, keeps a particular tenderness for transalpine dolce!

The place of gourmandise in your life?

Very important! I am a very gourmand person and I feel bad in half-measures. I therefore have to contradict my nature sometimes to better indulge later on!

A sweet souvenir of childhood?

Italian ice-creams that we took on the seaside in Juan-les-Pins where we went on holidays with my parents to see my grand-mother.

A favourite moment?

Christmas meals are always magical culinary moments and nice to share between the family. The choice of the menu and the whole preparation

where everyone helps out, preparing the toasts together, decorating the table… And the choice of the Yule log is essential of course!

What touches you with pastry chefs?

I like passionate and entrepreneurial people. These are traits of character that one often meets among pastry chefs and artisans. Cyril Lignac, for example, whom I regularly see since I present Le Meilleur P.tissier, is a relentless worker and I respect this enormously.

An anecdote concerning the sweet world?

The first time I saw Pierre Herm., I understood that the world of pastry was becoming my world. It was like meeting Barack Obama when you enter politics! Amateur and professional pastry chefs lost all their means in front of him because they were so impressed!

A house dessert?

My level is rather mediocre, a bit less, however than when I started Le Meilleur P.tissier three years ago. But I have a passion for home food processors and I take advantage of weekends in my country house to use them and to test dessert recipes. Not long ago, in just one weekend, I made a delicious lemon sorbet and a … failed … tarte Tatin!

A sin to share?

The tube of sweet condensed milk of my childhood and chestnut cream.

Snacking or tea-break?

Tea break… when skiing! With cr.pes, quatre- quarts and hot chocolate, a must as far as I am concerned! With the quasi magical childish thought that everything will disappear from my body as soon as I put my skis on the next day!

Your fetish flavour?

Pistachio!

A dessert in particular?

Impossible to choose: Pavlova and Mont Blanc!

From "Desserts" Autumn/Winter n°21