PHOENIX — Jenna Leurquin spends her days making French pastries
She's the owner of JL Patisserie, with locations in Phoenix and Scottsdale, and said her staff will make about 1,000 pastries a day and 2,000 on a typical weekend.
As we count down to the 2024 Paris Olympics, 12News is showcasing French food and culture in Arizona.
Born in Belgium, Leurquin was surrounded by French bakeries.
“I just grew up eating baguettes, French croissants, all that stuff," she said. "So I always loved it. And then I also like baking at home."
Then Leurquin went to college in the United States.
"I was like, 'where's where's all this good stuff, and I missed it a lot," she said. "So I picked up baking a little bit more for fun, and it kind of just kept growing from there.”
After college, Leurquin pursued her passion and went back to Europe to study at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, founded in 1895 and known as one of the most elite culinary schools in the world.
She eventually brought her skills to Scottsdale and opened JL Patisserie in March 2019. Eight months later, she opened a second location in Phoenix. Since then, her stores have flourished.
Last year, Leurquin was named a semi-finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award. She was also voted “Best of Phoenix” twice by “The New Times.”
What makes her pastries so unique? Leurquin believes it’s more than the quality of her ingredients.
“We try to source the best that we can, organic, all of that. And then our tradition is that it's the French way. It's a sourdough starter, which is extremely more time-consuming and difficult to maintain, and keep happy and feed," she said. "And you know, that method of mixing the dough and incorporating all those elements is a lot more difficult, but we stick through to it."
Leurquin said her biggest sellers are the chocolate croissants and baguettes.
And she now offers both online and in-person baking classes, so you can learn how to make French macarons and sourdough bread. You can sign up on her website.
As people from all over the world converge in Paris for the Summer Olympics, Leurquin wants them to indulge in French food and culture.
“Just enjoy it. Don't be afraid of whatever butter they might use, that there might be too much butter, too little. Don't worry about it. Just enjoy it," she said. "Have the bread, have the croissant, have the seafood! Just go for it! It's really good. It's going to taste good ... just go and enjoy it.”
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