French pastry chef Dominique Ansel, born in 1978, who is known for inventing the Cronut, a croissant-donut hybrid that has become a phenomenon, became famous for the Dominique Ansel Bakery, which he opened under his own name in New York.

Growing up in a working-class family in Beauvais, a small city north of Paris, Ansel is the youngest of four children. After high school he apprenticed at local restaurants, first working in salty and then pastry, and gravitating most strongly to the pastry technique. At the age of 19, Ansel completed his military service in French Guiana as part of a community program that teaches locals how to cook.

Ansel previously worked at Fauchon and served as executive pastry chef at Daniel, a two-Michelin-starred French restaurant in New York. He then opened Dominique Ansel Bakery in SoHo, Manhattan. In 2013, his invention of the Cronut became a widely publicized phenomenon and was named one of the best inventions of the year by Time Magazine.

He was named Best Pastry Chef in the USA by the James Beard Awards in 2014. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants award named Ansel the World’s Best Pastry Chef at the age of 39 in 2017. This made him the first pastry chef in America to receive this honor. Other award-winning chefs include Jordi Roca, Albert Adria and Pierre Hermé. In January 2021, he opened Dang Wen Li, his first store in Hong Kong, by Dominique Ansel.

In July 2021, he opened Dominique Ansel Workshop, a croissant shop inside the patisserie kitchens in New York’s Flatiron district.

Now the owner of New York’s highest-rated bakery, Ansel is one of the most popular names today: the creator of wildly inventive, extraordinarily delicious, and incredibly popular desserts.

In his highly anticipated cookbooks, Ansel shares his secret to transforming the humblest ingredients into the most extraordinary, seductive and satisfying pastries imaginable. Dominique Ansel: Secret Recipes reveals the stories and recipes behind his most sought-after creations and teaches dessert lovers everywhere how to make magic in their kitchens.