Owner and Executive Chef
Marc Heu
The Inspiration
Marc Heu was born in Saint Remy, France in 1989. When he was three years old, his family moved to French Guiana to become farmers. Heu spent his childhood growing up in an abandoned cow barn, surrounded by the Amazon jungle. Since Heu’s family lived three hours away from the big city, his family could not always afford to go to the pastry shop to buy desserts for the holidays. So, his older sisters would always bake traditional French desserts at home. Marc loved eating sweets, as most children do and would always ask to help in the kitchen. When he turned thirteen years old, he told his parents he didn’t want to go to college, but instead longed to follow his dream as a pastry chef.
His parents were not enthused by this idea and instead, encouraged him to pursue a career as a Medical Doctor. As he got older, Marc went to high school in Limoges, France and graduated with his Baccalauréat (high school diploma), with a focus in the Sciences. Marc later attended the University of Limoges as a medical student with hopes of fulfilling his parent’s dream of becoming a Doctor. However, in his second year of med school, Marc took a trip to Minnesota to visit his extended family for the summer. Here, he met his now wife, got married and ultimately decided to make Minnesota his new home. However, Marc never forgot about his dream.
The Training
In 2016, after years of baking French pastries, desserts and cakes for his friends and family, Marc decided to return to France to fulfill his life long dream of becoming a pastry chef. Marc enrolled in an accelerated pastry program at the prestigious Ecole Lenotre Paris and made the big move to Paris in 2017.
During this time, Marc was able to study under the guidance of the world’s top chefs in the fields of chocolate, ice cream, sugar, confectionary and cakes. In June of 2018, Marc graduated as the second in his class, from Lenotre Paris with the degree “Grand Bachelor De Patisserie” (Grand Bachelor’s of Pastry) with an honor of “Tres Bien” or “Very Good.” Marc continued his training by receiving three separate certificates of Ice-cream, Chocolate and Confectionary as well as High Vinnese Pastry from MOFs (“Meilleur Ouvrier de France” or “France best Craftsman,”) Gerard Taurin (two time Ice Cream World Champion), Serge Granger and Gaetan Paris. As well, he held an internship with Pre Catalan, a three-Michelin Star restaurant located in Paris, under the leadership of Executive Pastry Chef and the World’s Best Pastry Chef of 2018, Christelle Brua.
Soon after Marc graduated from Lenotre, he began working with Stohrer Paris, the first pastry shop to ever open in France. With over 300 years of tradition, he had the honor of learning from his mentor Jeffrey Cagnes, the Executive Chef at Stohrer. In 2019 Marc made his way from Paris to New York City, where he worked at the famous, Dominic Ansel Bakery, under the leadership of Ansel (the original creator of the Cronut.). However, Marc knew that his dream was to always share his cooking with his Minnesotan community. So, on Christmas Eve of 2019, he purchased a one way ticket from New York to Saint Paul, and began planning for the King’s Cake, the first dessert of his soft launch for Marc Heu Patisserie Paris.
Dream Come True
Marc is honored to bring back his knowledge, skills and expertise in French pastry from Paris and New York and cannot wait to share it with the whole state of Minnesota as he finally fulfills his childhood dreams.
