West-London native Abigail Scheuer has spent years training and working as a pastry chef in France at the world-renowned Hôtel Plaza Athénée, but when she left at the top of her game to return home to London, she was met with toxic and sexist work environments, where she didn’t feel respected in the kitchen. Instead of sticking it out and sucking it up, she paved her own path and did things her way, and created Le Choux, a bakery in west London, specialising in French choux. 

“I’m not male bashing or looking for sympathy,” Scheuer explains. “It was always my mission to create somewhere with no sense of competition and everyone feels represented – something that I never found in my career. It wasn’t my intention to hire all women, but I wanted to give everyone who works here an opportunity to work in a space where they feel respected in a male-dominated profession.”

Despite the tough working conditions of the hospitality industry, working in pastry has always been Scheuer’s dream. Thanks to her multicultural upbringing (her mother is French and her father is British-born German-Czech) and many family visits to Paris, she spent her childhood gazing longingly at the chocolate cakes and patisserie in pastry shop windows, which kick-started her love of all things sweet. 

“It’s the passion and the feeling of creating something with my own hands that sparked an obsession in me,” she says. “I followed the conventional route of going to university, training and working in France, but I had to leave my pastry chef job in Paris because it got too over-the-top and ridiculous. I would spend hours and hours on one complicated creation.”

Suppliers that Le Choux loves on REKKI: Foodspeed Ranson UK Ltd Natoora Ambican

In 2015, in the middle of making a big batch of cakes for a deep freeze and adding gelatin to raspberry mousse, she came to the realisation that there was no joy in what she was doing. She was baking pretty and pristine pastries for the sake of making a shop front look nice. Now having been on the other side of the pastry shop window, she knew that she was aiming for a perfection that she could never achieve. 

“I know it sounds cheesy, but I had to leave in order to gain perspective. For me, Le Choux is all about the sense of gifting things. I wanted to inject that sense of love and generosity back into what I do,” Scheuer explains. “Going back to basics was important for me. Working with products that would be baked fresh and filled fresh. Trying to retain that simplicity without being complicated for the sake of being complicated.” 

The moment you walk into Le Choux, there’s a sense of calmness and joy. The modern Scandi-vibe open-plan kitchen counter is inviting and welcoming, where the team of pastry chefs are in full view and have their heads down working on pastry while bopping to Beyoncé. On display: rows upon rows of beautifully uniformed choux pastries with various fillings, from pistachio and white chocolate to passion fruit and salted caramel, alongside trays of cinnamon buns, cookie stacks and showstopping celebration cakes.

For now, Scheuer is embracing the simple life. She’s taking the time to learn and try new things she never got the chance to do during her time in the kitchen, like working with dough and continuing to uplift the safe space she’s created. 

“I have to remind myself not to get in too deep,” she says, laughing. “I need to keep in mind what I’m making. ‘Is this delicious enough for somebody to crave? And would they want to keep eating it again and again?’ If not, then I need to go back to those childhood flavours and that childish spark and remind myself of what we love to eat.”

Le Choux, 332 Ladbroke Grove, London W10 5AH