Meet Guittard Ambassador, Lucie Bennett

Lucie Bennett is a pâtissier and chocolatier, with a focus on incorporating seasonal ingredients into her work. With a background in fine art, she draws on her artistic skills to make intricate and incredibly detailed sweet creations. 
Read on, to find out what inspired her to become a pastry chef, which trends excite her and how she rose to the challenge of making a mountain themed wedding cake…

 

• What inspired you to become a pastry chef? 

From a young age, I was drawn to the precision and artistry involved in making pastries. Baking allows me to express my artistic flair through intricate decoration, flavour combinations, and  presentation. It’s a perfect blend of science and art, and that balance really excites me.

 

• Was there a particular dessert or pastry that sparked your passion for baking? 

There isn’t one specific dessert or pastry that sparked my passion, but what really drew me in was the joy of making special cakes for my friends and family. Seeing their reactions and knowing that something I made could bring happiness and create memories really inspired me. 

Those moments made me realise how powerful baking can be, it’s not just about the final product, but the care, thought, and creativity that go into it. 

 

• What has been the most challenging dessert you've created?

One of the most challenging desserts I’ve ever created was a mountain-themed wedding cake, which was as much a design project as it was a baking one. The brief was wonderfully imaginative, it needed to include elements like beers, wolves, and deer, all set within a rugged mountain landscape. Translating that vision into an edible piece was no small feat.

There were so many intricate and delicate chocolate decorations involved, each animal had to be hand-crafted with fine detail, and the textures of the rocky landscape required a lot of experimentation to get just right. It was a true test of both technical skill and patience. 

What made it even more memorable was the on-site assembly. The wedding was held on a summer’s day that turned out to be unusually stormy, which added another layer of challenge. Trying to transport and build a multi-tiered, highly detailed cake in unpredictable weather kept me on my toes. But in the end, seeing it all come together and how much it meant to the couple made every tricky moment worth it.

 

• What trends in the pastry world / chocolate world are you excited about?

One of the trends I’m most excited about in the pastry and chocolate world is the increasing use of Japanese flavours, particularly those that bring a strong sense of umami into sweet creations. Ingredients like miso and soy sauce, traditionally used in savoury cooking, are being used more often in desserts to create a complex and balanced flavour profile. A touch of something salty or savoury can elevate a dessert, cutting through sweetness and adding unexpected depth.

I’m especially excited by Hojicha, a roasted Japanese green tea with a beautifully warm, nutty, and toasty character. It has rich undertones of caramel, cocoa, and even a hint of wood smoke, which makes it perfect for infusions in things like ganache’s, mousses, and sponges. 

There’s also a strong movement towards using local and seasonal ingredients, which I find both inspiring and sustainable. After a warm, dry summer, there’s been an abundance of hedgerow fruits like blackberries, bullaces, and damsons - all of which bring beautiful, natural flavours to pastries and preserves. I’m also excited to see the return of pumpkin season, which always offers such a versatile base for both sweet and savoury bakes. These ingredients not only celebrate what’s around us, but also encourage creativity in how we incorporate them into classic and modern recipes.

 

• What's the most unusual or surprising flavour combination you've ever worked with? 

One of the more unusual flavour combinations I’ve worked with was apricot and wasabi, as well as tarragon and mustard, both developed as ganache fillings. At first glance, these might seem unconventional, but much like pairing chocolate with chilli, the goal was to balance sweetness while bringing out the more nuanced, complex notes in the couverture.

The apricot and wasabi pairing offered a playful contrast, the bright fruitiness of the apricot tempered the heat of the wasabi, resulting in a surprisingly harmonious pairing. The tarragon and mustard combination were particularly memorable; tarragon infuses beautifully into ganache’s, lending a sweet, warming flavour with distinct hints of anise and liquorice. Paired with the gentle tang of mustard, it created a savoury-sweet profile that was both unexpected and intriguing.

 

If you'd like to see more of Lucie's work, you can follow her on Instagram by clicking here - follow Lucie