Let Your Taste Buds Travel to France

Santa Barbara’s La Gourmandise Handcrafted Pastries and Desserts Brings a Taste of the Délicieux to Town

All in the family: Cecile Mattray, Nathan, and Yannick Dumonceau | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

While nothing quite compares to Paris in the springtime, Santa Barbara’s new La Gourmandise handcrafted pastries and desserts bring the delicious tastes of France right to our doorstep.

From delicate macarons to mini tarts and elegant éclairs, La Gourmandise creates stunning displays of pastries, cakes, and desserts for special occasions such as weddings, fundraisers and parties. They also offer gorgeous hand-crafted croissants, as well as custom-designed cake creations that are as beautiful as they are delicious.

Owner and pastry chef extraordinaire Yannick Dumonceau began his culinary journey very young, at his uncle’s pastry shop in Lyon, France. He then trained under one of the most prestigious French master chefs, Meilleur Ouvrier de France Chef Patrick Chevallot, before going on to have a stellar career as the pastry chef at a variety of esteemed places in France (including seven years at the renowned three–Michelin star L’Ambroisie with Chef Bernard Pacaud in Paris), Australia, and Bora Bora.

In 2017, Dumonceau moved to San Francisco, where he served as Executive Pastry Chef at Quince and other spots in the Bay Area before moving to Santa Barbara to become Executive Pastry Chef at the Rosewood Miramar in 2021.

But the entrepreneurial spirit hit, as did the desire for his own family business. While Dumonceau still does some consulting for clients such as San Ysidro Ranch, with the creation of La Gourmandise in fall of 2024, he now works with his wife, Cecile Mattray Dumonceau, handing the business side of the operation, as their darling 4-year-old son, Nathan, makes himself at home in the commercial kitchen.

[Click to zoom] Chef Yannick Dumonceau’s cakes are true works of art | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Their quickly growing client roster includes the Santa Barbara Airport, private jets, the Dutch Garden, Claudia Coffee Bar, Cajé Coffee Roasters, Santa Barbara Roasting, and Handlebar Coffee Roasters — where Yannick and Cecile credit much of their success to the generosity of Handlebar owner Aaron Olson, who let them use his De la Vina location to bake at night when they first started and continues to graciously introduce them to owners of other coffee shops.

Though the business is quickly expanding, Dumonceau is quick to emphasize that the focus is on craftsmanship, not size. “I want to make sure we keep the perfect quality, step by step,” he says. “It’s all about quality.”

The pastry dough goes through a number of steps to create the perfect croissant | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Each croissant is hand cut | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
The layers of butter are visible in each croissant before it’s cooked | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Each croissant is perfectly hand-rolled to resemble a top | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Each croissant is perfectly hand-rolled to resemble a top | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Croissants await their baking time | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

And despite the pressures of having their own business, “For me, it is a lot less stressful than with the hotel and everything, because I organize everything how I want. I prefer to do that. … Being a pastry chef has been my job since I started when I was 15 years old, so I know my job very well,” Dumonceau says, expertly preparing a sheet of chocolate-filled croissants while we talk.

He currently produces about 1,800 croissants weekly, each one precisely cut with an X-acto blade and rolled by hand to “look like toy tops” — just the way his uncle taught him when he was 15.

From rainbow-colored macaron trees to croquembouche towers, lemon tarts, crème brûlée, assorted pastries and cookies, and those perfectly buttery and flakey croissants, joining Dumonceau on his culinary adventure is a journey of pure delight.

See lagourmandisesb.com.