ORLANDO, Fla. – Olivier Saintemarie was raised in Paris but he has spent a portion of his career bringing the flavors of the City of Light to Central Florida.
Saintemarie has spent time working Chefs de France in Epcot but is now in the process of opening his own business in Orlando’s newly expanding Packing District — La Maison Du Macaron.
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“I’m really happy to bring all these exciting products here,” Saintmarie said.
As the name implies, the bakery specializes in macarons — which are a small cookie made by combining meringue and almond flour to create shells that are then sandwiched around a filling.
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“It’s one of the favorite things I make,” he said. “I mean, it’s very popular. All the times I go to a party it’s like, ‘Hey, where are the macarons?’”
The chef and his team plan to deliver a variety of macarons for people to enjoy, including coffee, coconut lime, caramel with sea salt and back currant, among others.
“In each box, we’re gonna have a description of all the flavors so it’s depending on your on your taste,” Saintemarie said. “I’m pretty sure you can find something you’re gonna like.”
The bakery is not open to the public as it is focused on volume, but customers can order boxes of macarons online.
“We’re gonna have different collections — we’re gonna have a classic collection with the caramel, the spice, the coffees the vanilla. We’re gonna have a fruit collection,” the chef said. “We’re gonna have 100% chocolate. So we’re going to have a fudge we’re gonna have a regular chocolate, chocolate passion (fruit), chocolate orange.”
Saintemarie’s operation is still being built out and he is planning to expand into making chocolate candies. For now, the chef is focused on his macaron operation.
“I want people to really taste the macarons like we have them in France,” Saintemarie said. “It’s something I grew up with, macarons. I learned to make macarons a long time ago.”
The chef is ready to introduce his taste of Paris to a lot of people. He said his operation can produce 10,000 to 12,000 macarons every day.
On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Saintemarie shows off his operation and goes deep on how macarons are made. He gives Candace Campos and Lisa Bell a lesson on how to fill the cookies.
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