Business grad brings French connection to macaron shop

Not to be confused with their coconutty North American counterparts (macaroons), handsome French president Emmanuel Macron or mid-’90s dance craze the macarena, macarons are an elegant, melt-in-your-bouche French pastry. They come in a rainbow of colours and flavours, are small enough to be eaten in one bite and Instagram worthy.

UVic business grad Yann Fougère, BCom ’08, helped bring macaron madness to Victoria in 2012 when he and his business partner and fellow Frenchman David Boetti opened Bon Macaron Patisserie in a former shoe store on Broad Street. Now they have a staff of nearly 20 employees split between Victoria and their Vancouver location on Granville Island where they create thousands of bite-sized beauties a day and even offer macaron baking classes, which regularly sell out. Between beating egg whites and tending to his busy business, Fougère took off his apron for a few minutes to demystify the mini-but-mighty macaron for us.

What brought you to UVic?

I'm from Paris, and I was studying in the south of France where I did the first two years of my Bachelor of Business… When I came to UVic, I had no business in mind. It was two years. It was to do a transfer, to speak English, live somewhere else, do something different. Then I took the entrepreneurship program. I worked at Murchie’s for a few years, and with my business partner we wanted to open something together, something different, and we came up with this.

What does the macaron mean to French people?

It’s a really old dessert… When I was a kid, it was mostly chocolate, vanilla, salted caramel, strawberry, but that was about it. You could find it in every bakery. They all had a small selection because of how it's made. It's a good way to use the egg whites when you need a lot of yolks to make custard.

For those who aren’t familiar, what is a macaron?

A macaron is two pieces of almond meringue—so egg whites, almond flour and sugar—with a filling in the middle. The filling is what gives the most flavour. It's going to be made of buttercream with different flavourings in it… like caramel, chocolate ganache. We also have some sweet and savoury ones with goat cheese and different kinds of cheese fillings. It's really two pieces of almond meringue with any flavour you want in the middle.

Why did you decide on macarons and not some other French pastry?

Instead of trying to do 17 different baked goods or pastries that we would not master, we decided to do just one. It’s much more fun. We have pyramids of up to 220 macarons. You can have 40 different flavours. Everybody will find something that they like.

What’s your favourite flavour?

Salted caramel. Classic, but I grew up with it.

What are some of the more unusual flavours you carry?

Definitely bacon. That's not necessarily one you'll find in France. We also have a kimchi one that we just started. We have one with lavender that comes from Happy Valley Farm. We do classic ones, more fun ones like fuzzy peach or Nutella for kids.

How many macarons do you make in an average day?

It all depends on the season. Summer, because we supply a lot of hotels, is a busy season, and we’ll make up to 2,000 a day. Then we have the shop in Vancouver, and they can produce up 3,000 a day.

In the beginning, was there an education process with your Victoria customers?

At first it was really about educating customers… and getting them to discover this pastry, because not a lot of people were thinking about macarons. A lot of people didn't know what it was.

On a personal level, what do you like about macarons?

They can be light. They can be rich. They can be everything in one bite… It's so diverse. You have a box, you're going to go from kimchi to caramel to sea-salt espresso to matcha dark chocolate. It's completely different flavours. And with just one bite, you're not committing. When you choose a cake, you have that one cake and you're done with it.

What’s the secret to staying fit while surrounded by macarons all day?

Standing up. There are no seats in the kitchen. It's eight hours at least standing up every day, moving stuff, moving 20-kilo sugar bags, moving everything. It keeps you fit. And when you're around it all day, you don't eat that much. You have little bits to try to make sure that you taste what you do, but that's enough to have your sugar fix for the day. 

—Michael Kissinger, BEd ’94

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