Can you imagine macarons without eggs, or profiteroles without cream? Is it possible to create delicious French pâtisserie without using any animal byproducts?
In 2015, Amanda Bankert opened Boneshaker Donuts and Coffee in Paris, bringing her expert take on a sweet staple of American cuisine to a city already brimming with pastries. Bankert has since gained a reputation in Paris and beyond for her creative fusion of French and American baking. Her donuts, like the rest of her baking, are entirely vegan: Bankert draws from her judicious sweet tooth and her Le Cordon Bleu training to create mouth-watering, plant-based desserts without sacrificing an ounce of quality. Her new cookbook, Voila Vegan, experiments with a blend of French and American techniques and divulges 85 decadent vegan recipes.
American admirers of French cooking have long followed the work of David Lebovitz. Lebovitz is the best-selling author of cookbooks like My Paris Kitchen, Ready for Dessert, and The Sweet Life in Paris. His food writing has been featured in dozens of prominent publications, including Bon Appétit, Food + Wine, and The New York Times. He is also an enthusiastic supporter of Bankert’s work.
In this program, Bankert and Lebovitz will engage in conversation with one another, recounting their experiences as American chefs in Paris and exploring their thoughts on the future of vegan cuisine in France.
Want a taste before the event? We’ll be hosting a Boneshaker pop-up at the Library starting at 13h00 on April 2. Stop by to sample mini versions of the famous donuts, and purchase a copy of Voilà Vegan in advance. Only available while supplies last!
Please note that in-person registration to this event is now full. Online registration is still available.
About the speakers:
Amanda Bankert, an Irish-American pastry chef trained at Cordon Bleu Paris, is the founder of France’s first plant-based donut shop, Boneshaker Donuts & Coffee. She’s a two-time cookbook author: “Voilà Vegan” (Penguin Random House, 2023) and “Donuts, Café, and Good Vibes” (Hachette, France, 2023). Amanda champions veganism not as a restrictive diet, but as an inclusive, indulgent lifestyle that simply excludes animal products.
David Lebovitz spent nearly thirteen years in the kitchen at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, one of the original farm-to-table restaurants in America, beginning as a line cook in the café before moving to the pastry department. He was named one of the Top Five Pastry Chefs in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle and has been featured in Bon Appétit, Chocolatier, Food+Wine, Milk Street, Cook’s Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Travel and Leisure, the New York Times, People, Saveur, Sunset, USA Today, and on CNN.
In 1999 David left the restaurant business to start writing cookbooks and launched a website (later, known as a blog) to coincide with the release of his first book, Room for Dessert. His blog, www.davidlebovitz.com is one of the most widely-read food blogs in the world, with nearly 2 million page views per month. He is the author of nine books, including My Paris Kitchen, with stories and recipes about life and cooking in Paris, and Drinking French, which was named the Best New Cocktail Book by the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation. Other books include The Great Book of Chocolate, The Perfect Scoop, Ready for Dessert, L’Appart, and The Sweet Life in Paris. The latter two are currently in development for a tv series.
David now has dual nationality, French and American, and writes a newsletter (davidlebovitz.substack.com), which is the #2 newsletter on the Substack platform.
