Renowned Pastry Chef Laurent Richard Joins The Ritz Carlton New York, Battery Park

Richard is famous for his creative Chocolate Bar and signature desserts white chocolate peanut crunch cake and marquise chocolate cake.

By Patricia D. Sherman

Named one of Pastry Art & Design’s “Ten Best Pastry Chefs in America,” Laurent Richard has made an art of dazzling food critics and connoisseurs for years. He recently joined The Ritz-Carlton after twelve years as executive pastry chef at New York’s La Caravelle restaurant.

Richard is known for his passion for desserts as well as his own style of sauce-painting in presenting classic and contemporary confections. His signature desserts include a white chocolate peanut crunch cake, marquise chocolate cake and sacher torte. 

“I treat each and every piece of chocolate, every tuile, every cake and every tart with the same care and precision.  Nothing leaves my kitchen that is not the perfect balance between beauty and taste,” says Richard.

He is famous for his Chocolate Bar every February at the Rise bar in The Ritz-Carlton at Battery Park.  He decorates the room with his own chocolate sculptures of the Statue of Liberty, a life-size chocolate statue of the chef himself, a hand-carved chocolate chess set, and chocolate waterfalls.  Marshmallows take on an entirely new meaning in vanilla, chocolate, coffee flavors. 

Many celebrities have enjoyed his desserts including: Nicole Kidman, Billy Joel, President George H.W. Bush, Rod Stewart, Julia Child, Michael Douglas, Martha Stewart, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Oscar de la Renta.  

Born in Maison Laffitte, France, north of Paris, Laurent Richard has been creating his sweet compositions since the age of fourteen. At the age of twenty, Richard moved to New York to refine his delicate flavors and techniques.  His pastry specialties range from elegant plated desserts to sugar pulling and cake-decorating. 

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