Patisserie owner Marc Heu found a home in Minnesota’s Hmong community
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This year marks 50 years of Hmong refugee resettlement and immigration to Minnesota. MPR News will feature Hmong Minnesotans in a variety of careers through the month of May as part of our “ChangeMakers” series. This series highlights Minnesotans from diverse and often underrepresented backgrounds who are making an impact.
Marc Heu is a St. Paul-based pastry chef and the owner of Marc Heu Patisserie Paris. Born a French citizen, Heu’s journey to living in Minnesota is different from other families.
Unlike many Hmong families who sought refuge in the United States after the Vietnam War, Heu’s family located to French Guiana in South America. He says growing up in French Guiana was difficult for him at times.
“I was very ashamed of being Hmong, and I was the only person that looked different,” he said. After turning 18, Heu moved to mainland France to pursue medical school. He says right before moving, he started to accept who he was as a Hmong person.
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“To embrace the full culture, to embrace my language, not to be ashamed of my history, of my people, and to stand up for everything that my family, my ancestors, have done for us.”
However, medical school was not something that Heu found passion in. He said a part of embracing himself was to embrace the fact that he wanted to be a pastry chef. He set off on the path to pursue this dream after meeting his wife, Gaosong, who is a Hmong Minnesotan.
Heu studied patisserie in France and lived in New York before moving back to Minnesota to open his patisserie, which opened in 2019.
After coming to Minnesota, how was it for you to find space in the community here?
At first it was terribly difficult. I barely speak English. I mean, right now, I'm sure you can hear I have a strong accent, but for the first year, no one could understand what I was saying. I mean, I feel like the only person was my wife. And we like to joke that, you know, it’s just like the mom and her baby. Only the mom would understand the baby’s language, because they spend time all the time.
It was, it was very hard. And the French mindset is, we are very introverted. We don’t like to go out of our comfort zone. So I had to fight that. Even til today, I’m still fighting that shyness, that Frenchness of mind to not think too much. You know, just do it. Go out of your comfort zone, accept challenges.
What is the most rewarding part of your work?
At first, I thought it was to do what I love, not to have a boss. You know, everybody always wants to be their own boss, not to have to answer to anybody. At first, I thought it was that, but honestly, it's more about creating jobs. I still see my company as a small company, but when you have about 30 people working, I don’t like to say for you, with you, it’s not a game.
I mean, I don't take it lightly. I wake up, I make sure that, yeah, we have to do things right. You never know how tomorrow is going to be, but we make sure that tomorrow is going to be OK, not just for myself and my wife, but for all of our staff.
So, I take great pride of creating jobs again, bringing people together from different backgrounds. It takes a whole village to make one croissant.
What do you wish Minnesotans knew about Hmong culture or your community?
I come from a world where nobody knows about Hmong people. So, when I came here and I found out. “Oh, my God, everybody knows about the Hmong people!” I mean, if you go to a grocery store, you see Hmong people at the cashier. You see a Hmong person putting stuff in the aisle. You go at a hospital, you see Hmong doctors, nurses in the street, the police, when you have Hmong police officers.
And we’re just, just like everyone. We can do everything. We are very yeah, we’re just, in some ways, new to this, to the country, but not the new anymore. I am grateful for Minnesota. I truly found my home.