Loïc Autret at his Delray Beach bakery.
A delicate French peach tart on an almond cream bed,
finished with lightly toasted almonds and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Jane Smith
At Loïc Autret’s French bakery in Delray Beach, the baker displays pastries, breads and sandwiches as works of art. He elevates his croissants in baskets. He wants the customers to see the various colors of the pastries that indicate they are handmade.
Presentation matters, he insists. His breads and pastries need to look as good as they taste.
“People love food in Delray,” he said, when asked why he wanted to sell at the city’s GreenMarket.
“I set up my booth so that the customer sees what I see,” he said. It is why he takes time with his displays, a skill he honed while working at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach.
One Saturday morning at the market, he looked out to see 60 people in line and started to cry. To him, that line validated his bakery business.
Autret even created his own hairstyle with shaved sides and a curlicue on the top that he calls “Loïc Style.” He wants people to focus on him and not the scars from an accident in Cambodia when he was 20 and in the French Army. About 15 years ago, his hair stylist began highlighting the curlicue.
More than 10 years ago, Autret switched careers. He was a paratrooper in the French Army when he fell in love with an American woman who lived in Florida. He studied French baking and pastry making at the Ecole de Gregoire Ferrandi, the French school of the culinary arts, before moving to Florida and marrying the woman of his dreams.
His bakery, opened in March, sits south of Plastridge Insurance and straddles Northeast Fifth and Sixth avenues with parking on each side.
He and his business partner, Christian Backenstrass, have 10 employees and sell variations of croissants including Belgian chocolate and almond cream along with French fruit tarts, baguettes, specialty breads —including Kalamata olive loaves — and sandwiches on baguettes.
Through a glass wall, Autret can be seen putting on the finishing touches on his “52 Shades of Loïc” with exploding dark chocolate inside and topped with white chocolate drops that melt on the hot cookie.
“Dark chocolate is an aphrodisiac,” he said.
The bakery has a selection of high-top tables for in-store dining and an array of outside tables for al fresco eating when the weather cooperates.
Coffee and teas are also served. Its Marie-Antoinette Tea is brewed using a French press. Autret said water is heated to a near-boil and a French press is used to show the black Ceylon tea leaves, apple pieces and rose petals floating, as if “in an aquarium.”
Backenstrass said he met Autret at the GreenMarket and their kids attend Spanish River Christian School in Boca Raton. He knew Autret was an authentic French baker after tasting his croissants.
Loïc Autret French Bakery, 814 NE Sixth Ave., Delray Beach, www.loicautretbakery.com, 266-3516; also at the Delray Summer GreenMarket, eastern part of the Tennis Center parking lot, 201 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, through September. During winter months, Loïc Autret has booths at the Delray Beach and Boca Raton green markets.
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