Jean-Jacques’ Culinary Creations
It’s not often that a touch of Paris comes to your neighborhood, but Jean-Jacques’ Culinary Creations has been a staple in the village of Pleasantville for the past 10 years. It offers everything you’d expect in a French patisserie, including mouth-watering pastries, to-die-for tarts and tasty breads.
Owned by Jean-Jacques and Jeanette Gabrillargues, the business is collectively run by this husband-and-wife team and their two children, Jeannette and Jens. The café is a regular stop for commuters on their way to the nearby Metro-North train station and a haven for locals who crave the French-style cuisine.
As Morocco native Jeannette Gabrillargues tells it, the couple met inNew Yorkprior to her husband securing a job at a French restaurant in Mamaroneck. At the time, she was a foreign language teacher in the Croton-Harmon School District. Soon after, Jean-Jacques, a certified executive chef and a native Parisian, decided to start his own business, and it was his wife’s colleagues at Croton-Harmon High School who helped grow that initial business.
Coincidentally, the couple’s first business venture was a catering company, and today that’s very much a part of the Jean-Jacques business model, but with an even broader scope to suit the discerning tastes of Westchesterresidents.
“A lot of people think of us as a bakery when we really do a lot more than that,” said the couple’s daughter, Jeannette.
She is primarily responsible for organizing the many events that Jean-Jacques caters, including birthday parties, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and corporate and fundraising events. She works closely with her brother overseeing the retail, wholesale and catering aspects of the business.
In addition to offering its on-site private party room to customers, the business collaborates with exclusive estates throughout the area, such as the Rowley Estate inScarsdale, the Cotillion Ballroom in Bronxville, the Marros Bar Estate inRye, theJamesHouseMansionin Sleepy Hollow, Vista on the Hill at Temple Beth Elohim in Brewster, and Temple Sharaay Tefila in Bedford.
At the heart of Jean-Jacques’ Culinary Creations is the family’s love for the hospitality industry.
“We grew up helping out and learning all the angles and different aspects of the restaurant business,” said Jeanette, who remembers her formative years working weekends, summers and holidays with her brother. In addition to serving as the company’s director of events, she also works at the café alongside her father, who occupies most of his time in the restaurant’s busy kitchen directing a team of French-born chefs.
Creating delicious food is a passion the entire family shares.
“Food has always been a part of our life,” noted mother Jeannette. “My husband always cooked wonderful dishes, and so the children grew up exposed to different types of food and loving it all.”
It’s a passion that Jean-Jacques embraces daily. Arriving at the café sometimes as early as 5 a.m., he not only mentors the three sous chefs and three pastry chefs under his direction, but also creates many of the dishes that can be found at the front of the shop.
His daughter said they all like to taste the dishes that come out of the kitchen, including the prepared dinners that are available every day, calling it their form of “quality control.” All of the ingredients come from upstate farms and/orNew York Citymarkets.
The Gabrillargues family and their staff, headed by front-of-the-house manager Patty Irwin, firmly believe in offering exceptional service at all times, be it when customers arrive for breakfast or lunch or when planning a wedding or a corporate event.
“We want our customers to feel like this is their second home,” Irwin said.
“We all share the same passion and we all want the same thing,” Jeannette concurred.
Jean-Jacques’ Culinary Creations is open seven days a week. Hours are Sunday through Thursday 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. For information on their catering service, call 914-747-8197 or visit www.jean-jacques.com.
