the story behind aimer by marie
In enchanting Provence, amidst the melodies of cicadas and the fragrant breeze of lavender, Marie was a dreamy and reserved child. She discovered her love for pastry walking down to the village to buy her morning viennoiseries.
Influenced by her pianist mother and landscape-architect father, her artistic spirit revealed itself early. But life took her somewhere unexpected. She studied law and criminology at the University of Aix-Marseille before discovering that her true path was waiting for her elsewhere.
In Paris, she met a Vietnamese chef who would become an important part of her culinary journey.
Together, they created two restaurants, a cooking laboratory, a cookbook and a culinary consulting business, while building a life filled with food, creativity, an extraordinary son, unforgettable travels and experiences that would shape Marie far beyond the kitchen.
In 2019, her fascination with New York finally became reality. Then came March 2020.
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As the world stopped, Marie found herself with a rare opportunity to turn a childhood dream into reality. From her Brooklyn brownstone, she began baking, creating French pastries and viennoiseries by hand and sharing them with her new community.
What began as a dream quickly became a small, unexpected world of its own. Her pastries brought people together during an uncertain time, attracting customers from different backgrounds and creating connections that went far beyond the food itself.
After eighteen intense and beautiful months, Marie decided it was time for another chapter.
She packed her life into a car and crossed the country, heading toward the California coast.
Los Angeles became her new home, a place where she could bring together everything she had learned, while continuing to explore new ingredients, techniques, cultures and ways of cooking.
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Choosing the name Aimer was deeply symbolic.
In French, aimer means to love. It is also an anagram of Marie’s name, a small coincidence that made the word feel even more personal.
At the same time, Marie discovered something she had never known about her family. Her great-grandfather had been a baker in Lille, in northern France, working in a bakery called "L’Indépendante".
The discovery felt like an unexpected thread connecting the past with the life she was creating.
Aimer became more than a business name. It became a way of expressing what Marie wanted to put into her work: love, intention, memory and connection.
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Today, whether she is preparing a meal for a private family, creating a dinner around a client’s memories, or laminating dough for a croissant, those same ideas remain at the heart of her kitchen.
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Marie’s journey is a story of resilience, persistence, adaptability and creativity — but above all, of following a path that was not always visible, and having the courage to keep walking toward it.
