How chef Christophe Adam, of L'éclair de génie, fell in love with pastry

"No. When I was young, I was not a good student. So when I was 15 years old, I started to learn pastry making. After understanding it bit by bit, it became my life. Before that, I'd been baking a little bit every Wednesday. Students in France get Wednesdays off so a lot of times I would make a yogurt cake."

"It's my love for creation and pastry. For 25 years, it was a job. Now I have my world of pastry - éclairs - with my brand. My life as a pastry chef is finished - I have a team of chefs. Now I am a businessman and creator."

"I don't have a recipe for that. I'm inspired by my travels, the seasons and where we open our shops. My creations are fuelled by a lot of things - colours, magazines and my feelings. The éclair is a very old pastry - it was first created in 1850. Three years [after I started my business] the éclair is very new and modern. I love that it's possible to work with a lot of flavours and decorations. We are brothers - me and the éclair - I live with him."

"Salted butter caramel. I love it. It's simple. It's No1 - all our éclairs are numbered. When I was young - I'm from Brittany [in France] - we ate a lot of caramel. For me, éclair caramel is like vanilla mille-feuille - it's a classic and it's made me famous. It's the bestseller wherever we open."