At 12 years old, Romain Jeunet’s first baking experience was in his mother’s kitchen. At 16, he began working in a bakery, in his parent’s village near Paris. In 2009, he left university to fully pursue his dreams at a pastry school, studied the basics of pastry and moved to Paris to work as a commis chef in a 5 star hotel. The hotel’s gastronomic restaurant received its first Michelin star in 2012.
In 2015, after gaining experience and confidence, Chef Romain decided to travel, discovering the world and exploring work overseas. He landed in Australia and worked for almost two years in Melbourne at an Italian restaurant/bakery. Two years later, a bit by accident, he arrived in New Zealand with no job, no plans and no familiar faces.
It took Chef Romain just one week to find a Pastry Sous Chef position in the Cordis Hotel, Auckland and after 18 months in the job was promoted to Executive Pastry Chef - a position he stayed in for a further 18 months.
In 2020, Chef Romain started his current position as Executive Pastry Chef of the Sofitel Auckland Viaduct Harbour and in 2022 was given the opportunity to also manage the SO/ Auckland.
“I really wanted to become a Pastry Chef because it is so amazing to see the hundreds of different delicious creations you can make with just flour, eggs, chocolate, and butter.”
Leading the team at SO/ Auckland, Chef Romain caters to the downtown business crowd at the bottom of SO/ Hotel. Javalab is tucked on the corner of Customs and Gore Street, offering an effortlessly chic, modern escape from the hustle and bustle of Auckland CBD.
In their deliciously indulgent cabinet, Chef Romain keeps a stock of contemporary French treats like éclairs, macaroons, and freshly baked croissants, alongside traditional savouries from toasted breakfast burritos to hot-pressed paninis, changing daily.
With Chef Romain at the helm, pastries are house-made from scratch in authentically French fashion. His favourite to make are Choux Pastries such as éclairs, but also loves tarts, cakes and plated desserts.
“It’s impossible to choose just one favourite!”
Though he doesn’t have a signature pastry, JavaLab is becoming well known for Chef Romain’s éclairs and the team are working on flavours both classic and uncommon - Black Forest and Lemon Meringue alongside Durian and Coconut.
JavaLab’s pastry chefs create and experiment with new recipes and love to discover new flavour associations, wanting to bring a new era to desserts in New Zealand. The café offers some revisited New Zealand classics, like Lamington with a raspberry twist. Everybody participates in the development of the range, bringing recipes, ideas, and feedback to improve each newly crafted dessert.
Trends grow through the baking space with the help of social media and television shows, putting pastry chefs like Chef Romain under the spotlight now more than ever. Foods are being tailored more and more to special diets and for those with allergies. Chef Romain is seeing the industry grow its confidence in substituting ingredients and avoiding potential allergens with customers looking for gluten free, keto and vegan options.
Though trends come and go, Chef Romain always appreciates the classics but believes that the times of sickly sweet and overly-buttery desserts are a thing of the past. In his approach, the chef cuts down on sugar levels where possible, focussing on the balance between sweet and sour, creamy and tangy. The JavaLab team uses Chantilly cream, instead of heavy buttercream, as it is lighter and fluffier on the palette and not as heavy on the stomach.
Seeing a customer's smile when their dessert shows up to the table reminds Chef Romain that his job provides people with happiness.
“Becoming a Pastry Chef, we are also becoming ‘Happiness Designers’. The purpose of our job is to make people happy.”
He hopes to turn JavaLab into Auckland’s own ‘dessert temple’, the perfect place to take a seat, enjoy a hand-roasted, 100 percent fair trade and organic Hummingbird coffee and one of Chef Romain’s dessert creations.
Although becoming a pastry chef is rewarding in so many ways, it also takes a long time and lots of effort. Without his team - Pastry Sous Chef Jonathan, CDP’s Jihye and Harry, and Demi CDP Fumi - Chef Romain believes nothing would be possible. He also credits supportive Culinary Designer Martin Kingsleysides, whose knowledge of products and ingredients is a great advantage to the pastry team.
Far in the future, Chef Romain would like to open his own shop, though only time will tell as for now, he is very happy heading the team for Accor.
