Thierry Le Baut

“I didn’t know much about Indian gastronomy before coming here. It is one of the best in the world and evolving quite fast. I am quite confident that India will have many Michelin-star restaurants driven by Indian chefs in the next few years,” said chef Thierry Le Baut, program director, Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) Gurugram, who has many accomplishments as a French pastry chef.

With over four decades of industry experience, Thierry was associated with multiple Michelin star restaurants in Europe and cooked for many celebrities, before entering the field of academics with Le Cordon Bleu. As a professor of practice he has had stints with various Le Cordon Bleu campuses in New Zealand, Canada, London and Manila before joining the Gurugram campus a year ago.

“I have always cherished teaching. I have been doing demonstrations for big food brands from an early age and that also involved some kind of education. After 50, I decided to get into education so that I can share my years of knowledge and experience to next generation to make the culinary world better,” he said, while interacting with ETHospitalityWorld on the sidelines of the grand finale of French Patisserie Competition hosted by Le cordon Bleu at GD Goenka University in association with Business France India, the French Trade and Investment Commission, French Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Thierry was the chief jury of the competition which was held in 5 cities in India before the grand finale in LCB Gurugram campus.

Talking about the quality and standards of Indian chefs at the competition, Chef Thierry said that while overall standards were at par and the jury had the difficulty in choosing the best ones, there is a long way to go as far as the finesse, presentations are concerned. “But I could see a lot of touch of finesse in some of them. If trained under a good coach, they could even participate in the Bocuse d’Or and win medals,” he said.

He said that the Indian chefs can use their knowledge of Indian flavours and combine it with French techniques to make innovative stuff. The only thing they have to learn is how to mix different ingredients and make good presentations.

“I am sure they will reach there soon,” he said. He cited the names of eminent Indian chefs like Garima Arora and Gaggan Anand, who have made it big in the global culinary scene using Indian flavours in a modern way to make it appealing to global audiences.

“I don’t teach students how to cook, I teach them technique and presentation,” Thierry shared his pedagogical philosophy. He also tried to remove the misconception that they teach only the French cuisines at LCB campuses.

“It’s not true. We teach all the global cuisines at the UG level. Once they learn all of them, they can choose the one they want to specialise in,” he said, adding that LCB has one of the best infrastructure for students to excel in the culinary world.

Comparing the quality of students and their passion here in India compared to other countries and campuses, Thierry said that the basic education in India is far better and therefore, the Indian students are far better in mathematical calculations compared to European students.

“In Europe, I have to teach them basic divisions and multiplications,” he said.

With India’s rich culture of hospitality backed up with a strong knowledge system, Thierry expected “Indian chefs to be on top of the culinary world in the next five years.”