Saint-Honoré at Carrefour: a celebration of baking and pastry-making expertise
- May 28
- 6 min read
Without a doubt, Carrefour's pastries elicit a "wow" effect! Exquisite flavors, sophisticated presentation, quality ingredients, and expert craftsmanship. But who are the people who create them in the serene, climate-controlled kitchens, rising before dawn every day, and spending the entire year developing, testing, shaping, and reinventing their pastries to the delight of food lovers? Meet them at Saint-Honoré 2026, a celebration dedicated to these unsung heroes. Passionate about their craft, they delight our eyes and taste buds day after day.
© Text & Photos: Doris Ramseyer
Carrefour Arue: top-notch pastries
A tantalizing aroma wafts through the bakery section… the delicious scent of doughnuts, recently made on-site, mingling with the pleasant aroma of freshly baked bread. Just a few steps away, the pastry section opens up: a feast for the eyes, directly stimulating the eager taste buds. “Curiosity is a glutton; to see is to devour,” Victor Hugo noted. Perhaps that's why the pastries disappear in a flash as soon as they're placed in the display case! Stéphane Girard, pastry chef at the Carrefour in Arue , explains that the high quality of the products - exceptional Valrhona chocolate, high-end Boiron fruit puree, or even Iranian pistachio paste - combined with real know-how, make all the difference, and that mass-market pastry is decidedly very far from industrial pastry .
"Curiosity is a form of gluttony; to see is to devour."
Carrefour's homemade desserts , ranging from simple to complex creations and boasting a wide variety of flavors, will be the stars of the Saint Honoré celebration, allowing their creators an even stronger expression of their visual and gustatory inventiveness. It is also one of the rare events where pastry chefs and bakers will leave their laboratory - or behind their oven - to mingle with customers, offer them tastings, and share their recipes.
If you have the chance to meet Anthony Bradai , you should know that he is a young pastry chef with both promising and proven talent . His passion for sweet creations is both visceral and familial, even if he took a circuitous route—a vocational diploma in electrical engineering—to get there, via St. Joseph High School and then a hospitality school. After obtaining a vocational certificate in catering, followed by a professional baccalaureate in baking and pastry, Anthony completed his studies with a supplementary qualification in restaurant dessert preparation, from which he graduated top of his class .
In his workshop at the Carrefour in Arue, Anthony pipes elegant swirls of coconut ganache onto the pineapple compote that covers the base of the piña colada tart, topped with a delicious almond-coconut cream. His credo: the combination of unusual flavors . This is what he sought and practiced at home, starting in 2015 after his studies, when he sold his creations through his Facebook page. He continued this same approach at Les Rêves de Lucie for three years, at Carrefour Faa'a for one year, and then at Trop Choux. In 2014, he was named Best Junior Pastry Chef of Polynesia . During his years of practice, he tested and validated the tiare-lemongrass combination, the pistachio-mango-passion fruit pairing, the ginger-rosemary union, and even the vanilla-crème brûlée accord, nestled within a black pearl—a tantalizing new dessert that will soon be presented at Carrefour Arue, where the young man has been honing his skills for two years. This place allows him to fully express his creativity and constantly evolve along his chosen path. an absolute passion-driven profession .
Saint-Honoré, the emblematic festival of French bakers and pastry chefs
Did you know that Saint-Honoré refers to a feast day, a Parisian street, a famous cake, and a saint? Honoré d'Amiens, a 6th-century French bishop whose life was said to have been punctuated by miracles—continuing even after his death—particularly those related to bread, is the origin of this shared heritage. These wonders led him to become, as early as the Middle Ages, the patron saint of bakers, celebrated on May 16th . Pastry chefs adopted him later, when they became an independent profession. One of them, probably Chiboust, a pastry chef on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, is said to have created around 1846 the famous eponymous dessert made with puff pastry, choux pastry, caramelized cream puffs, Chiboust cream, and Chantilly cream—an iconic entremet of French pastry, with a flavor that is both delicate and rich , as crisp as it is smooth .
Ivonne Suarez, marketing director , explains: “ Saint-Honoré allows us to inform the public about the talents and creativity of our bakers and pastry chefs, and to revive a forgotten event .” This is how Carrefour supermarkets have been celebrating Saint-Honoré since last year. The third week of May is packed with activities related to pastry and bread making, diverse tastings, a unique gourmet menu, activities for children, themed decorations, logos dedicated to the event, and T-shirts created especially for the teams.
To stimulate the creativity of pastry chefs, a competition was launched between teams from Carrefour supermarkets, each with a head chef. The challenge: to create a reimagined Saint-Honoré . The specialists in sweet flavors outdid themselves, imagining delicious and original cakes . Pistachio-raspberry for the Arue team (first prize for decoration), pineapple-mango for the Punaauia team, and Saint O for the Faa'a pastry chefs, where each choux pastry contained a uniquely flavored cream: pistachio, raspberry, chocolate, or vanilla. A daring surprise that won first prize!
While all the festive events of the year represent highlights for the pastry chefs of the brand with the red and blue arrows - Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Halloween - the Saint Honoré , building on its first success, is being repeated in all Carrefour supermarkets in Tahiti, from May 11 to 17, 2026 , bringing with it a whole host of surprises based on a theme that will only be revealed in May!
The specialists in sweet flavors have outdone themselves.
Carrefour Faa'a, the passion of the trade
Six kilometers from Arue, at the Faa'a crossroads, Poehere Tetiamana meticulously pipes swirls of whipped cream: juxtaposed, they form something like the frilly tulle of a wedding dress, whose mousse-like texture enhances the base of the Saint-Honoré, a delicate composition of puff pastry and choux pastry. Concentrated, but with a smile on her lips, Poehere declares: "I love a challenge and creativity; I express myself through my cakes! " Sugar and its sweetness are her guiding principles (but nothing too much, just the right amount), flavors according to her mood, and aesthetics to illuminate the moment of tasting.
While Poehere had always enjoyed cooking at home, she initially pursued a secretarial degree . Encouraged by her partner to follow her passion, she trained at the CFPA (Adult Vocational Training Center), choosing pastry-making "because it's a meticulous, complex, and technical field," and completed a series of internships. For six years, she honed her skills at Coco's under Chef Bénédicte Massonnet. In 2016, she was crowned the best pastry chef in French Polynesia in the professional category. At Rêves de Lucie, Poehere worked in the shop, where she learned a great deal about technique. Seven years ago, she moved to Carrefour Faa'a, where her creativity knows few bounds, as the pastry chefs have free rein to express themselves.
Because it's a meticulous, complex, and technical field
Every day she continues to learn, assisted by Guillaume Philbois, head of the pastry and bread shop . A chocolatier, ice cream maker, confectioner, caterer, and baker, he has been a pastry chef since he was 13, and motivated to become one since he was four: a life dedicated to his passion, which he practices both at home and at work, after a career spent in establishments as eclectic as they are prestigious, in France and Polynesia. With Pohere, they inspire each other, blending traditional techniques with the most modern; a dynamic duo supported by a close-knit team built on mutual support, humor, and a taste for challenge: essential ingredients for further growth.
After arranging the cream puffs in a crown, Poehere places a few red berries on top of his creation, a superb Saint-Honoré with an immaculate white coating: "It's a very technical cake that requires a lot of work beforehand!" For Saint-Honoré 2026, the team is ready to take on the challenge of a new competition, whose flourishing ideas are being kept top secret until the big day. " Saint-Honoré is still relatively unknown; it deserves to be discovered , because it's a celebration that brings people together, is of real interest to both our profession and our customers, and was a real success in 2025 !"
Much more than a festival of flavors filled with entertainment, the Saint-Honoré is the celebration of those who have chosen a profession with demanding hours and techniques, who create for their own pleasure, but above all to give pleasure.
Tama'a Magazine #38
Find the two recipes created for the occasion at https://www.tamaa-mag.com/
