My dear francophiles, francovorous and francophageous friends, I love cream puffs. They're so good, so sweet, and so creamy… I just love them!

I love puffs without cream too. Let me tell you a secret. My favorite dessert is profiteroles, a puff filled with vanilla ice cream and covered in melted chocolate. That is my ultimate temptation and it's to die for…

You’re probably asking why I’m talking to you about favorite desserts. Well, firstly, because it’s one of my favorite subjects and secondly because, in this week's episode of Rendez-Vous D’Amérique, we have a story about Rebecca Tison, the queen of cream puffs in New York (I gave her this title, it's nothing official, ok… she doesn’t live in a cream puff palace or drive a cream puff car, but who knows, maybe she has a dog named Cream Puff). Her story is inspiring.

She was bored in a banking job on Wall Street, went to Paris to see her family, had a cream puff in a cream puff pastry shop on the left bank and decided she wanted to open the same kind of shop in New York. She did open a shop on the Upper Westside and 2 years later that shop, Barachou, is a success. Everyday, she sells between 200 and 600 cream puffs at about $3 a piece. I let you do the math…

I just love this kind of story where entrepreneurial American spirit meets the French savoir-faire. During our 294 episodes of Rendez-Vous D’Amérique (I can’t believe we’re this close to the 300^th episode after more than 11 years now), we've told a lot of these stories about restaurants, wine shops, all kinds of food, art and even flower shops… In any kind of world, we found these kinds of stories.

And I love that, because it’s usually some young and brave entrepreneur that gave up everything they had to make their dream come true, because it takes the best of our both worlds, because it shows that there is still a little bit of this “if you build it, they will come” spirit in America. And because it also shows that the best of both cultures can be put together to form something that perpetuates a French influence in the American culture.

Yes, I realize that I’m calling selling cream puffs a perpetuation of French culture in the United States… and I have absolutely no problem with that. Each time Rebecca sells one of her delicious cream puff to a New Yorker that has never had a ‘chou à la crème’ before in their life, she is offering them a little piece of France, at $3 apiece.

To learn more about Francophone entrepreneurs in America, tune in to Rendez-vous d’Amérique on TV5MONDE USA. Click here for more information.

Exploring cultural diversity through film, art, and so much more, Rendez-vous d'Amérique invites you on a journey to discover Francophone culture in America. Your host on this cultural experience is Didier Allouch - reporter, cinephile, and a familiar face on the red carpet. Click here to learn how you can subscribe to TV5MONDE USA and never miss an episode!