All our staff have baking experience

SINGAPORE - Back to basics - with a touch of modernity - is among the concepts that Delifrance has embedded in its recent re branding exercise.

Delifrance International managing director Jean-Manuel Leveque tells StarBizWeek of The Star newspaper more about the campaign.

Why the focus on bringing back the contemporary French bakery and cafe?

We want to highlight our fundamental products, which are contemporary French fresh-baked bakery products.

We also want to inject a little piece of Paris into the experience of dining at Delifrance.

Tell us more about France's Le Cafe Gourmand trend of eating, which was introduced at Delifrance this year.

Le Cafe Gourmand is a concept of eating (that embraces) the art of French living.

It comprises bite-size desserts consisting of three mini patisseries - macarons, mini tarts and mini chouquettes - accompanied by a cup of coffee.

Why go for bite-size portions?

I see that eating smaller portions is a growing trend in Asia. On top of Le Cafe Gourmand, we are introducing mini butter croissants that are suitable for afternoon tea.

People and culture at Delifrance are important factors in defining its brand identity. Could you elaborate on that?

Regardless of what position a Delifrance staff member has, everyone has a bit of baking experience. This is the kind of thing that we embed as part of our culture here.

I went to a baking school for a month and every year, for at least three to four months, I will get my hands dirty and try some bread-making myself.

What other plans does Delifrance have this year?

We are going to invite celebrity chefs to come up with signature sandwiches for Delifrance and we will offer these to our customers at affordable prices.

We have actually done this in Singapore and we hope that Malaysia will be the next country to experience this.

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