The day before the official opening of his eponymous bakery at Caesars Palace, James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Dominique Ansel gave a few journalists a lesson in the art (but mostly science, he says) of the Viennoiserie, breakfast pastries typically made with flour and active yeast cultures. Croissants, pain au chocolat and brioche are some examples of this style of baking, which originated in Vienna, Austria.

Under the orange-and-white modernist space with whimsical globe light fixtures hanging from the ceiling like balloons, the chef recounted his lifelong quest to create the perfect croissant. It’s a quixotic pursuit that began when he was a boy growing up in Beauvais, France.