It started with a #cronutbribe. DwellStudio founder Christiane Lemieux was walking to work one rainy August morning in SoHo and posted an Instagram of the ever-relentless line for Cronuts™ at the nearby Dominique Ansel bakery. Designer Peter Som quickly replied via Twitter, trying to bribe Lemieux for an elusive cream-filled pastry. The exchange caught the attention of Ansel himself, who joined in on the fun: “I’d be happy to trade Cronuts if we can work on something together for a good cause,” he tweeted to the pair.
Jonathan Adler’s creation
And so the Cronut™ Mission was born. Ansel, Som and Lemieux teamed with a number of celebrities, tastemakers and Broadway performers to design one-of-a-kind Cronut™ boxes for Thanksgiving. The signature tulip boxes will be auctioned off online with proceeds going directly to God’s Love We Deliver, an organization headquartered near Ansel’s bakery that provides healthy meals and nutrition counseling to New Yorkers living with severe illnesses. Boxes will be home-delivered to the winning bidders’ New York address on Thanksgiving morning.
David Stark’s design
The 16 unique boxes include a jeweled creation from Heidi Klum, a brightly-printed design by Jonathan Adler, a box topped with actual hair by Simon Doonan and even offerings from Som (pictured right) and Lemieux themselves. For a fun Broadway tie-in, the casts of musicals such as Cinderella and Rock of Ages will also design boxes to be auctioned.
The Thanksgiving Cronuts™ themselves were even created specially by Ansel for the initiative. Each one will be plated with 24K gold leaf and filled with pumpkin cream, a flavor never before used in the pastry, timed perfectly for the holiday.
Peter Som’s box
“We come out with new items all the time,” Ansel told DuJour recently about his fall menu. “I believe you have to: creativity is a way of life, and a lot of times you must follow the seasons, whether you want to or not.”
The croissant-donught hybrids have been a craze since their introduction last May, and even as temperatures fall New Yorkers continue to line up for hours before the bakery opens to get their pair of pastries. The phenomenon has spurred imitators worldwide desperate for a piece of Ansel’s success, the level of which surprises even himself. “It’s wonderful to be recognized by the fans,” Ansel says, “but I don’t think I ever expected recognition. I just wanted to run a healthy business and make pastries that people enjoyed and that I could be proud of.”
With the Cronut™ Mission, we think he’s done just that.
Boxes from The Cronut Mission will be auctioned at biddingowl.com from November 18th to 26th. Find the Cronut™ Mission on Twitter at hashtag #thecronutmission.
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