Jayce Baudry French Pastry: Downtown Montclair’s French Patisserie
Jayce Baudry French Pastry, a French patisserie, is a local favorite among the Church Street retailers in Montclair. The bakery, owned by a husband-and-wife team, brings classic baked goods like tarts, eclairs, and macarons, as well as ice cream, coffee, tea, and more to downtown Montclair at 17 Church Street. Read on to learn more about Jayce Baudry in Montclair and its owners.
About the Owner
Jayce Baudry began his pastry career at a very young age. He was just 14 years old when he landed his first apprenticeship back in Bordeaux, France. He went on to work under prestigious chefs throughout France in both Paris and Lyon, two of the country’s most well-known food cities. Jayce had a deep knowledge of the technical aspects of baking, was always learning new skills, and had a passion for pastries, which helped him advance in his career.
Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Desserts in Montclair
Jayce then took the biggest chance of them all and made a leap to the Big Apple in 2013. Jayce landed at Restaurant Daniel where he was the Executive Pastry Sous Chef for Daniel Boulud, who is one of the world’s most famous chefs. Later, he was promoted to Executive Pastry Chef of Epicerie Boulud, a high-end cafe market with multiple Manhattan locations.
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"My wife and I were both working in New York City, her as an executive pastry sous chef in a Michelin star restaurant and me as Executive Pastry Chef of three stores," Jayce told The Montclair Girl ahead of the patisserie's opening in 2021. "We ended up laid off as so many restaurant workers were. We did not know what tomorrow would bring. We were at the same time expecting our first child and as the months passed we started to realize we would never go back to what used to be our normal life. From there, all possibilities were open."
Jayce made his way to New Jersey a few years back to support friends Dominique Paulin and Olivier Muller, as a pastry chef in their new venture, a French restaurant in town that may ring a bell: Faubourg.
Baudry previously worked with Dominique and Olivier during their overlapping tenures with Boulud in New York City, and they have been close companions ever since.
It was during this time in New York when Jayce also met his future partner, wife, and fellow pastry chef, Rebecca. When the opportunity to have his own shop was presented to Baudry, he knew he had to take advantage.
"I decided to open a French pastry shop in Montclair after seeing my friends Olivier Muller and Dominique Paulin successfully open their French restaurant, Faubourg, and witnessing how the people of Montclair appreciated the experience," he previously explained. "After meeting a lot of people and visiting the town, it became evident that it was time for me to open my own pastry shop in this beautiful town."
About the Bakery
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The shop is located on Montclair's bustling Church Street, nestled between Proven Poke Co. and Fresca da Franco. The idyllic storefront is hard to ignore.
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The store serves up classic, upscale French desserts like dark chocolate eclairs, which is a light pastry dough filled with decadent chocolate creme, and lemon meringue tarts, filled with smooth lemony custard topped with toasted meringue. There are also imported items that fill the pantry including, but not limited to chocolate-covered cherries, wildflower honey, macarons, ice cream and calissons, a traditional French candy. Jayce Baudry also sells custom cakes, and you cannot go wrong with a classic croissant here. Jayce previously told MG you can find pastries and cakes like those made in pastry shops in Paris, but are rare to find here in the Garden State.
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"My pastries are designed to interact with all of your senses," Jayce said. "The first and most important one of course is taste, but I like to not mix too many flavors to keep the true taste of noble ingredients. My second focus is on the visual, as I think we eat pastries first with our eyes, and so they need to be sexy and seducing you — every little detail is important. The touch is also very important as you want a pastry to be easy to eat, to be able to grab it with your hand, or easily cut it with a fork and knife. And finally, the sound, of the crunchy part when you take a bite, and the smell, of all the ingredients mixed together as a unique perfume."
Jayce Baudry French Pastry is open Sunday through Thursday from 9AM-7PM, and Friday and Saturday from 9AM-9PM.
