French-Australian pâtissier Agathé Kerr has received the status of Chevalière de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole Francais by the Embassy of France in Australia.

Agathé, who founded the wildly popular Agathé Pâtisserie in South Melbourne Market, said she had been surprised by the recognition.

“Initially I was contacted by Serge Thomann, a Port Phillip councillor who is also French-Australian and, as it happens, an Agathé customer. He was actually the one who nominated me for the award,”Agathe said.

“For me it is a wonderful recognition of my team’s efforts over the years to bring authentic French pastries to Melbourne.

“Of course, we have some interesting flavours at Agathé that you probably wouldn’t find in a traditional pâtisserie in France, but the foundations are very French. All our croissants are based on the recipe and techniques I learned when I did my pâtisserie diploma.”

Agathe said when she first opened Agathé Pâtisserie as a small pop-up at the Prahran market in 2014, she never imagined just how popular it would become. Rather, she said, she just wanted to make something she loved and to share it with the people of Melbourne.

Since then, Agathé Pâtisserie has grown organically, moving from the Prahran market to a permanent stall at South Melbourne Markets.

“I never had a plan apart from following my intuition and seeing where that would take me,” I never had a plan apart to follow my intuition and see where that would take me,” Agathé said.

“I started out very small – by myself at the pop-up for a year… so to find out that I was going to become a Chevalière de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole was something I could never have imagined.

“It makes me happy to know that I built a business in Australia that can be a small window to French culture; as a result I have been recognised by France, so I must have done something right here.”

Agathé said they had kept the recognition relatively small, only announcing it on Instagram and in the South Melbourne Market newsletter. Nevertheless, she received a huge number of messages from customers and friends.

“Many were asking me if I was really a knight, and what they should call me now,” Agathé laughed.

“Many people have followed Agathé Patisserie for years, since it was a trestle table at the Prahran market in 2014 to the large stall it is today at the South Melbourne Market. It is a success story that wouldn’t have been possible without all these loyal customers and, of course, without the Agathé team over the years.

“Also, it was only possible with the support of my husband, Warren, and my three daughters. Two of them now work in the shop as well.”

So, where to from here? Agathé said she would continue to focus on doing what she does best: making people happy with delicious pastries.

“Every other year we talk about opening a new shop, then we get really busy with our existing shops so we postpone the idea,” she said.

“One day maybe. Or maybe not.”