Claire Clark, head pastry chef at the French Laundry in California, has left the three-Michelin-starred restaurant to return to the UK, Caterersearch can reveal.
Clark has been at the French Laundry under chef-proprietor Thomas Keller for nearly four years but has left to pursue ambitions to open her own business in London.
“I’ve come back to do my own thing,” she told Caterersearch. “I’m 45 and it was ‘now or never’ really.”
Clark revealed that she was in the process of looking at sites in London for a “pastry orientated” business centred on a high street shop. The venture, which will have seating and be aimed at the top end of the market, is expected to open in spring 2010.
Although Clark would not be drawn on specifics, it is understood that her preferred location would be in Chelsea.
“It will be very girly, very ‘Sex in the City’ – for the ‘It’ girls, if you want,” she said.
Until the business is launched, Clark is pursuing patisserie consultancy and is working with Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, the Langham hotel and upmarket event caterer Rhubarb.
Clark will join fellow patissiers William Curley and Paul A Young, both of whom have established successful patisserie/chocolateries in London, the former in Richmond and the latter in Islington and the Royal Exchange in the City. Curley is set to open his second premises in Pimlico in the autumn.
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By Joanna Wood
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