Les Arômes Festival opens with aromatic bread workshop

At the workshop, French bread chef Christophe Grilo introduced some of his signature breads and how they were made. Attendants were also invited to join the chef in dough rolling to shape their own loaves. “France is the country of bread and cheese. There is a hundred kinds of cheese and a thousand kinds of bread,” he said. “Each baker creates their own bread recipe, but we all try to keep the shape original.”

Owning a bakery in Singapore, 38-year-old executive pastry chef and baker Christophe Grilo, who has cooked for Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and singer Barbra Streisand, is headlining the 2016 Les Arômes Festival.

After the bread workshop, on May 20, Metropole will introduce Grilo’s new bread collection throughout the hotel’s dining venues, and will begin retailing the collection at L’Epicerie. One night later, Grilo will help ‘Uncork the Summer’ in Les Arômes’ special picnic dinner at La Veranda, featuring wines by Chateau Grand Verdus from the hilly terroir about 20 kilometres east of Bordeaux. With live jazz music, a bread counter and a cold cuts station, this will be a truly unique summer night to remember.

Grilo has worked at a succession of Michelin-star establishments, and literally climbed the rungs from one-star to three-star restaurants, becoming renowned as one of France’s most promising young bakers. He relocated to Asia in 2004, working for two major hotel brands before assuming leadership of Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie. In 2013, Grilo started up Bakery Artisan Original, where they produce bread with deeper flavours and textures through traditional methods.

The 9th annual Les Arômes Festival at the Metropole, kicked off on April 29 at La Veranda with a wine dinner featuring Craggy Wines from New Zealand, will be followed by La Nuit in Sofitel on May 27, a night of glamour at Angelina restaurant & lounge, and will conclude on June 4 with a wine dinner featuring Bordeaux’s famous Domaine de Chevalier at L’Orangerie.