We can’t quite decide if pastry chef Remy Ertaud is a butter-wielding wizard and gastronomic gift to the East End or … the evil force that will force us into expandable-waist shorts and caftans. Either way, his just-launched Maison Ertaud is hatching to be a finger-licking highlight of the summer of 2026, with his line of fresh-baked croissants, brownies, cookies and other most excellent confections.
Sold exclusively at L&W Market (2493 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, 631-537-1123), where he makes the pastry in their ample downstairs kitchen, Maison Ertaud launched this month, right in time for Memorial Day Weekend munching.
If Ertaud’s name is familiar, you might know him as the executive sous chef and pastry chef (and ice cream maestro) for Maverick’s in Montauk since it opened in 2023. He met Mav’s executive chef Jeremy Blutstein at his first kitchen job, when they both were behind the line at Almond, when Ertaud, now 32, was a very green 19 years old. “I couldn’t even sit at the bar after work for a beer,” he says. “Jason [Weiner, co-owner of Almond and L&W Market] knew me from being that young cook who had burns up and down his arms.”
His stint at Mavericks has been a pivotal, important time in his career. But his recent marriage to ARF marketing maven Tess Pintchik, and thoughts for the future and a family, had him wondering if there might be some independence to be spun from sugar. About two years ago, he began a little holiday side hustle, making specialty pastry and cakes for end-of-the-year festivities and celebrations — and the dream to start Maison Ertaud began to ferment.
“[Mavericks] is a great project and they’ve treated me very well because it required that I give that much of myself for it. I was there at 8 a.m. and stayed until 11 p.m. when service ends. But it’s like, what’s the life quality? It’s the unfortunate part of the business,” he offers. Two pivotal events in his life — the death of his mother at the young age of 62 and his marriage to Pintchik, brought his goals into focus.
“My passion is pastry and I’m a morning person. My wife hates me for it!” he laughs. “And being from southern California, I love the summer, I love the sun.”
Ertaud grew up in Los Angeles, the son of French-speaking parents, and the apple didn’t fall far from the tarte tatin: His father was the opening chef for Le Folle in San Francisco and, now, is an executive chef for motion-picture on-set catering.
“For me, it’s all I know how to be. Like, I love hosting at home. My favorite thing to do as a kid with my parents was when we hosted other people for dinner parties,” he says. “I tend to get bored of things quickly, so it’s like, oh, somebody’s coming over! Here, try this! I love food to that extent. I grew up with that. Good food is just happiness. It’s warmth.”
The Ertauds sent their two sons to a Gallic-minded private school in Beverly Hills to ensure their status as bilingual speakers, and to France to spend summers and vacations with family. “We’re a bilingual family. We go in and out of French and English all the time,” he says. “And that was part of the reason why I went to France to learn pastry. My background has always been sweets, and I went to France to kind of get deeper into sweets and focus on pastry.”
Well, except for a side-step into a college degree in economics and tax capital. But it’s a study that’s serving him well as a burgeoning business owner — and, perhaps, is even a bit of a mirror to the exacting discipline of pastry making. “It’s something about organization and spreadsheets,” he says, “Maybe that’s why I like pastry.”
Maison Ertaud is launching with several gobble-‘em-up items on the daily-made menu: a buttery, crackle-crust croissant that is so wonderful you may shed a tear of joy, a pain au chocolate, a rotating seasonal scone, a cheddar biscuit (and keep your eyes peeled for the smoked cheddar biscuit he’s developing with Mecox Bay Dairy), an almond croissant, cookies, brownies and a round-shaped banana bread with slices of caramelized banana on top.
“That’s Tess’s favorite, which has been the most pain in the ass product,” he laughs. “She kept telling me during R&D, ‘It’s not enough banana! It’s not enough banana!’ And I was like, if I put any more banana in it, it should be a smoothie. But she’s happy with the one I made now.”
Products from Maison Ertaud are available at L&W Market from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and at the Sag Harbor Farmers Market located at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum at 200 Front Street on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
