Not many places in the South West can boast their chefs have worked and trained in Michelin star restaurants across Europe, but that’s just whats happened at Bunker Bay.
Patisserie chef Romain Lassiaille took a job at the Pullman Resort at Bunker Bay convincing them to make him their pastry chef.
It was somewhat luck that Lassiaille ended up at the South West resort, after he came to Australia to work at a restaurant in Melbourne.
“I was the sous chef but I wanted to be number one, I told them I could not stay and that’s when I found out about this place in Bunker Bay,” he said.
“When I started most of the pastries were frozen so I made it my mission to show them they needed a pastry chef.”
Hailing from France, Lassiaille trained for two years to master his craft then took his first job at a Michelin starred restaurant in Paris.
“I always loved food, mostly sweet food,” he said.
“My mum was at home making something sweet and I always helped her, so I chose my way to become a pastry chef.”
Lassiaille was 18 when he moved Paris and worked for a year in a one-Michelin star restaurant. He moved on to work in a two-Michelin star restaurant before the best chef in France enticed him to work at the Four Seasons in Paris.
“After seven years in Paris I went to Switzerland – the home of chocolate – to work at the Palace Hotel in Gstaad.”
It was the first time Lassiaille was employed as the head pastry chef leading a team of seven people.
“I enjoyed that a lot and did it for three and a half years because the work was seasonal I worked for seven months of the year and traveled.”
He went to South Africa to train people at five star hotels in Cape Town and Johannesburg as well as Peru in South America.
“Now I am hear in Australia,” he said.
Traveling has helped Lassiaille to develop his skills and come up with new creations which he loves to do.
“I like to make people happy and have so many ideas all the time.
“It is a real passion.”