Michel et Augustin

By: Oona

Michel et Augustin is a heritage French food brand that stands for “accessible Frenchness” (in other words: “accessible indulgence,” an ethos Oona shares), applying the art and science of French pastry making to everyday snacks. Founded by childhood friends Michel de Rovira and Augustin Paluel-Marmont, the brand began in a Paris-based kitchen in 2004, expanded to the US in 2015, with a home base in Brooklyn, NY, and celebrates its 20th anniversary this September. 

Oona sat down with Michel et Augustin’s US-based team, a genuine family of experts in marketing, supply chain, sales, finance, and general management, to learn more about the brand’s history and future.

Editor’s Note: Every online order of Oona’s elegant Skin Fermented Pinot Gris (an orange wine) includes a complimentary bag of Michel et Augustin’s sensational Comté Cheese with Black Pepper biscuits.

Source: Oona

How did Michel et Augustin come to be?

Michel et Augustin was founded in a shared Parisian kitchen by two childhood friends, Michel and Augustin. At the time, entrepreneurship was considered an off-the-beaten path in France — nonetheless, Michel, who leans more reserved, and Augustin, who leans more excitable, quit their corporate jobs, and, even more unconventionally, began perfecting shortbread.

Michel and Augustin were frustrated with the offerings at local supermarkets - good ingredients were hard to come by, and the available products weren’t speaking directly to consumers. They yearned for a more communicative, participatory, and humble approach to food, particularly French food, from its creation to its enjoyment — and so, they formally studied French pastry making, with humility, and ultimately built a buzzy food brand (you may have encountered the brand on a recent Delta Airlines flight).

Michel and Augustin believed pastry to be a center of French cooking, and that French pastry was, and still is, seen as inaccessible.

Why does Michel et Augustin focus on French pastry?

Michel and Augustin believed pastry to be a center of French cooking, and that French pastry was, and still is, seen as inaccessible. To the brand and its founders, French pastry requires good, simple ingredients, including a ton of butter. Butter separates Michel et Augustin’s products - the brand uses European butter containing 82% milk fat, a rarity for packaged cookies that tend to sacrifice quality for cost. Simple ingredients are ingredients consumers know and can pronounce, ingredients they can find in their kitchens - Michel et Augustin’s versions include: high-fat butter and high-quality chocolate.

Above all, French pastry is indulgent, and to be indulgent is to be human. A love for pastry permeates the brand, with over 80% of Michel et Augustin’s global team, no matter the department, formally trained in French pastry making. The certification process is grueling, involving mastery of a number of recipes, oral exams about food safety and preparation, and live baking. 

A few years ago, Michel et Augustin’s France-based team authored a pastry book, Bake Like a French Pastry Chef, with the goal of making French pastry more accessible. The book was translated to English in 2018. “Energy is jumping off the page, with tips and tricks to make sure you’re not overwhipping mousse or you understand that different pastries require different resting periods - this isn’t a classic cookbook,” says Lily Dionne-Jermanovich, the brand’s US Head of Marketing.

Above all, French pastry is indulgent, and to be indulgent is to be human.

How has Michel et Augustin developed as a business?

From the very beginning, Michel and Augustin opened their kitchen to passersby, inviting neighbors from the street to try their shortbread and share feedback in real time — this tradition of “open houses” led Michel and Augustin through 300 iterations of their shortbread recipe before landing on the perfect one.

The open houses continued at the “Banana Farm,” the brand’s former home base in Gowanus, BK — the property featured a banana tree in the back, hence its pet name.

Michel et Augustin now has a handful of delectable cookies and snacks available for sale in the US, and retails in Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and Central Market, among other domestic grocers. The brand’s products artfully bridge “the wheat crackers section and the cheese crackers section,” notes Lily.

Michel et Augustin also partners with Delta Airlines on select transatlantic flights, plus corporations like Meta — “as we built up our food-service channel before the pandemic, every law firm and every bank in the US knew who we were,” says Lily. 

The innovation pipeline is alive and well, and, foremost, responsive to customer wants.

The biscuits are made with 34% butter, and “you can (joyfully) taste the butter.”

What differentiates Michel et Augustin’s delectable cheese biscuits?

Michel et Augustin’s Comté Cheese with Black Pepper biscuits, like most of the brand’s assortment, is manufactured in France. Comté, an elevated, alpine cheese from the mountainous portion of Eastern France, is a household cheese in France but lesser known in the US. Aged comté tastes nutty, smoky, fruity, and sweet, and each note comes through in the brand’s savory and crunchy comté biscuits.

The brand’s comté biscuits feel artisanal and honor the brand’s pastry roots, its shortbread roots — “there’s something very homemade about them,” says Lily. The biscuits are made with 34% butter, and “you can (joyfully) taste the butter,” Lily adds.

Our Skin Fermented Pinot Gris, an elegant orange wine, pairs beautifully with aged cheeses and umami flavors, hence the no-brainer pairing with Michel et Augustin’s biscuits — your perfect apéro awaits.

Your perfect apéro awaits.

Source: Oona