Why go
Less sugar, held from Kobe to Montauban
Reducing sugar is not an afterthought for Jérôme Allamigeon, Pastry Chef at Pâtisserie Alexandres in Montauban; it is part of how he sets the finish of a cake before the first layer is assembled. At the Faubourg Lacapelle salon de thé, that restraint belongs to a wider house of pastry, chocolate and ice cream, built in the city where he returned to open Alexandres in 2002. The name keeps family close. “Alex” honors Alexandre Laporte, his maternal grandfather and a pâtissier in Moissac, while the final “s” nods to the second names of Jérôme and his two sons. Allamigeon’s bench began early, beside that grandfather, then moved through a CAP in pastry and kitchens on the Côte d’Azur. He worked at Hôtel Négresco in Nice under D. Lestanc, served in the French military in Djibouti, then returned to the craft at Bastide Saint Antoine in Grasse under J. Chibois and C. Camprini. Kobe changed the seasoning of his hand. With Nathalie Allamigeon, he opened French pâtisseries there for Mr Asaï, adjusting recipes for a Japanese palate by taking sweetness down rather than adding decoration. That decision followed him back to Montauban.
Hazelnuts from Albias, chocolate from the house
The program at Faubourg Lacapelle is not a single counter of cakes; it is a pâtisserie, chocolatier, glacier and salon de thé working as one discipline. The range runs from Millefeuille and Baba au rhum to house creations such as Baccarat and Absolu, with chocolates, pure-butter viennoiseries, ice creams and savory pieces made for the tea room. The local marker is Bonbons Flingueurs®, a Montauban specialty built from roasted Albias hazelnuts coated in milk chocolate. It is a small object, but it carries the method clearly: regional nut, controlled roast, milk chocolate shell, a gift tied to place without needing a grand format. Alexandres also works with fruit and nuts from Tarn-et-Garonne, including apples, strawberries and Albias hazelnuts, keeping the bench close to the surrounding agriculture. The house has belonged to Relais Desserts International since September 2008, among pastry and chocolate artisans gathered across 19 countries. That affiliation sits behind the work rather than in front of it. The customer meets it as texture, sweetness held in check, and the clean break of chocolate around a roasted hazelnut.
The tea room as a working extension
The Faubourg Lacapelle address, opened in 2012, gives Alexandres what the first city-center boutique does not: a room where the pastry can be eaten in place. The counter remains the center of gravity. Cakes sit with chocolates and ice creams, while the savory program widens the rhythm of the day without turning the house away from pastry. The room is elegant in the French artisan register, more intimate than theatrical, with conversation carrying over tea cups and plates rather than over a loud pass. This is the Alexandres address where the guest can pause long enough to read the structure of a dessert: the cream set lightly, the fruit kept bright, the sugar pulled back so the finish does not blur. The gesture is consistent from the cake bench to the chocolate case, and it lands most plainly in the Bonbons Flingueurs® at Faubourg Lacapelle.
