Other
Sébastien Canonne
Pastry chef
- Discipline
- Other
i. Biography
Sébastien Canonne is president and founder of The Butter Book, and a co-founder of the French Pastry School in Chicago, Illinois, United States. His work moves between production, instruction, and platform-building, with the same standards carried across each setting. The Butter Book reflects that continuity: a structure built around pastry knowledge, not a break from it.
The Climb
Training at Gaston Lenôtre gave Canonne a disciplined starting point in French pastry, with technique and repetition set early as working habits. The kitchens that followed — Pré Catelan; Côte Saint Jacques; Beau-Rivage Palace; Euler Palace Hotel; and Palais de l'Elysée in Paris, Burgundy, Geneva, Basel, Paris — placed that training under different pressures, each one demanding precision at the level expected of major houses and hotels. In 1991, he became executive pastry chef at Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, bringing a European foundation into a new market. That move anchored his career in Chicago. In 1995, he expanded into education and ownership as co-founder and operator at French Pastry School in Chicago, Illinois (1995–2020), where pastry was not only made but taught as a working discipline. Today, Sébastien is founder of The Butter Book (since 2020) and co-founder of EQUII (since 2022). The sequence shows a career that kept extending the same craft into new formats, without losing the original emphasis on method, structure, and technical control.
Today
He is president and founder of The Butter Book. That role keeps the focus on pastry as a system of standards, not just output. The work sits in line with the rest of his career: methodical, practical, and built from accumulated practice.
Signature
French pastry is the throughline in Canonne’s work. The craft is defined here by technical discipline, consistency, and close attention to detail, beginning with Gaston Lenôtre and continuing through the kitchens, hotel posts, and teaching platform he built in Chicago. Sébastien Canonne’s name is tied to a style of pastry that depends on repetition done well and standards held across settings.
Recognition
His honors include Meilleur Ouvrier de France (2004), National Order of the Legion of Honour, knight (2015), and Order of Academic Palms, knight (2012). For a pastry chef, those distinctions place the work inside both craft and civic recognition. They also confirm the reach of Sébastien Canonne’s contribution beyond a single kitchen or school.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Sébastien
What is Sébastien Canonne's current role?
As of 2026, Sébastien Canonne is President and Founder.
Where did Sébastien Canonne train or study?
Sébastien Canonne trained at Gaston Lenôtre.
What recognition has Sébastien Canonne received?
Meilleur Ouvrier de France (2004).
