INTRODUCING CHEF MARC HEU'S SIGNATURE COLLECTION

A Signature Dessert Collection 

By Chef Marc Heu | Marc Heu Pâtisserie paris

When I was a child, my parents lovingly gave me ONE DISH, and one dish only, when I was sick. A dish meant to heal. 

KUA DIS. (pronounced: koua- dee). 

They swore comfort came in the form of kua dis—plain rice porridge, sometimes sweetened with a single cube of sugar. But to me, it tasted bland-- like weakness. I longed instead for Coca-Cola, Crocky (French chips, salty and pristine in their bright red bag), and the moment I would be strong enough to play outside on our passionfruit farm and climb the trees in the Amazon Jungle.

Years later, after I moved to mainland France for high school, I tasted RIZ AU LAIT for the first time. My classmates called it a delicacy, but to me it felt strange. Why put milk into rice?! The taste brought me back to my childhood, but worse. I disliked it all over again.

It wasn’t until pastry school that my perspective began to change. Standing over a pot of simmering rice and milk, I learned how to transform this dessert with new techniques, ingredients, and my imagination as a chef. What I once resisted, I now understand: even the humblest dish could inspire a new dessert-- something extraordinary.

This is the story behind Kua Dis: a cake shaped like a grain of rice, filled with riz au lait, layered with GF bisquit (sponge cake), mango confit, soft caramel, vanilla whipped ganache, white chocolate. A dessert that honors tradition while daring to reimagine it.

Hmong food, our food... from the fields of French Guiana, to my family's dinner table, to the granite counter tops of our patisserie in St. Paul, to the national stage. 

It is my offering—our HEIRLOOMS rooted in culture, memory, and the belief that the future of French pastry can hold many voices. This collection is for you, Minnesota. This collection is for all of us.