I was invited to attend opening night, a preview night with fellow bloggers and press but due to a schedule conflict I could not make the performance. With ten original productions to its credit, Cirque Éloize has presented almost 4,000 performances in over 440 cities and 40 countries including such locations as Israel, Hong Kong, Scotland, Norway, Germany, Tokyo, Russia, Mexico, Lebanon and the US with the most recent performances taking place in Connecticut's Foxwoods Resort Casino. This isn't the type with animals and oddities, but a circus that expresses its innovative nature through theatricality and humanity, and combines circus arts with music, dance and theatre in a completely unique and original form.

This Montreal-based traveling circus has been creating moving performances filled with magic since 1993. This past weekend I had the privilege to attend Cirque Eloize iD at Foxwoods. This year, in his most recent endeavor at Foxwoods, Chef Franck opened Cake by Franck, a boutique storefront showcasing a unique dessert experience that serves as an outlet for Chef Franck’s fine-tuned talent. In his current role, he oversees a staff of 40 and services 34 on-site food outlets.

Several years ago in 2009, on a quest for new challenges Chef Franck came to Foxwoods Resort Casino as the Executive Pastry Chef. Franck’s creative work has also been published in F ood & Wine, Gourmet, Art Culinaire and Modern Bride Magazines and Dessert Professional Magazine where he was recently named a Top Ten Pastry Chef. We spoke at length about his childhood in France and the life-changing decision to move to the States. At the age of sixteen he entered Andorra Culinary School, where spent two years mastering the basics of French cuisine, from there he moved to Perpignan to study and learn the art of pastry making. After many years of working both as cook and pastry chef throughout France and Spain, he made the life changing decision to move to America and in 2000 where he worked as a pastry chef at Patisserie Mirabelle in Old Saybrook, CT. Two years later he moved to New York to enhance his culinary skills there and soon found himself at the esteemed Upper East Side Payard Patisserie & Bistro. Born in Argenteuil, France, just north of Paris (most noted for the works of Van Gogh), Chef Franck was raised in the food and restaurant industry.

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