It’s time to indulge in something sweet with Julien Dugourd. Celebrating the arrival of the Bell & Ross BR 01 Cyber Skull Bronze, the prominent pastry chef and friend of the Maison undertook a feat of virtuosity to design a pastry version of the Bell & Ross timepiece. A pure indulgence in the brand’s image.
Savour each passing hour: such is the philosophy that the co-founders of Bell & Ross, Bruno Belamich and Carlos Rosillo, share with Julien Dugourd. A great lover of watches, particularly Bell & Ross designs, the pastry chef chosen by the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, not to mention member of the very exclusive Club des Chefs des Chefs, has created a chocolate-caramel cake using the stylistic codes of the new BR 01 Cyber Skull Bronze. A timepiece to be savoured.
The delicacy of watchmaking
For Julien Dugourd, imagining a creation by transposing the shape of the Cyber Skull to come up with a sweet creation was as challenging as it was pleasurable. “I’m a fan of aviation. The BR 01 watch, which is directly reminiscent of a cockpit clock, particularly speaks to me,” explains Julien Dugourd, whose watch collection is mostly made up of Bell & Ross, including his guilty pleasure of two Cyber Skull models.
He first discovered the brand on the wrist of Christophe Michalak during his time at the Plaza Athénée. From that day on, he fell under the spell of Bell & Ross, a Maison with which he shares many passions, from aeronautics to Formula 1. Recently, the 39-year-old pastry chef, who trained alongside Marc Veyrat, Jean-Georges Klein and Alain Ducasse, had the opportunity to share his work in the paddocks with the Alpine team drivers. The icing on the cake? Between mouthfuls, the friends of the Maison had the opportunity to discuss their links with Bell & Ross: areas of excellence, with many meeting points.
Technical precision and the art of living
A surprise awaits fans of sophisticated watchmaking: an animated automaton triggers the movement of the lower part of the jaw, as if the skull in the centre of the watch were preparing to savour the cake created by Julien Dugourd. This detail says a lot about the attitude of this unusual timepiece, offered in a limited edition of 500 pieces.
The subtly faceted bronze case of the BR 01 Cyber Skull Bronze (45×46.7mm and water resistant to 50 metres) houses a very special mechanical hand-wound movement: the BR-CAL.210 calibre. Its decoration and finishes are particularly worked.
Watchmaking expertise meets pastry magic
If the BR 01 Cyber Skull has a highly sophisticated design, the cake created by Julien Dugourd is no less complex, with a composition of several layers to form a sandwich-type watch case.
“This cake is a faithful reproduction of the timepiece in pastry, and can be found in the window of my new boutique in Nice,” announces the pastry chef.
The base of the cake consists of a Caribbean crisp, on top of which a chocolate biscuit is fixed, delicately coated with caramel. The two are surrounded by chocolate mousse. The whole is embossed with cocoa butter, coloured with natural ingredients to create a bronze effect. A small chocolate wafer sprinkled with gold duplicates the skull emblem, which sits on two shin bones. Borne by pirates and D-Day elite paratroopers, this Jolly Roger insignia is the stylistic signature of the BR 01 Cyber Skull watches.
Materials and flavours
As a designer of instruments for professionals, Bell & Ross sculpts its watches with fine contemporary and technical materials, always seeking the best sources. Whether gold, steel, sapphire, titanium, carbon, leather or rubber, watchmaking materials allow many alliances to be made. For the BR 01 Cyber Skull Bronze, the choice fell on one of the oldest alloys in the world, with a combination of copper and tin. It’s a material that conveys emotion, especially because of its natural properties, allowing oxidation to change its appearance over time for a unique finish: bronze.
Echoing this, pastry chef Julien Dugourd chose to work up his creation in a blend of chocolate and caramel, using ingredients from impeccable sources chosen with care. The combination of the two allows for interesting explorations of flavour and texture, evoking different watchmaking finishes. On tasting the cake, the power of chocolate lingers in the mouth. As a counterpoint, caramel gives body and sweetness. Hard to resist…
