Ooh La La: French chefs dish up pasty for Sandy-ravaged DUMBO bakery

Ooh La La: French chefs dish up pasty for Sandy-ravaged DUMBO bakery

It was Brooklyn’s fanciest bake sale ever.

Pastry chefs from chi-chi French restaurants served up their tastiest treats to help a flooded-out DUMBO baker whose insurance company left him high and dry.

They raised a lot of dough last weekend â€" more than $ 10,000 â€" for French immigrant Herve Poussot whose Almondine Bakery has been closed since Superstorm Sandy.

“There’s chef’s solidarity,” said French native Anthony Valla of DUMBO baking-chocolate vendor Valrhona. “When things go bad they help each other.”

Valla asked restaurant big Francois Payard to muster fellow ex-pat chefs for the marathon two-day fundraiser and voila â€" nearly 20 said, “Mais oui.”

Though the holidays are their busiest time of year a foodies’ Who’s Who of donors including Le Bernardin and Epicerie Boulud delivered tempting tarts and mouth-watering eclairs to the Water St. bakery which temporarily re-opened for the fundraiser.

“We’re like a fraternity,” said baker Roger Gural who used French Culinary Institute kitchens to whip up baguettes for Poussot’s bake sale.

“And Herve is such a generous person,” said Gural â€" one of a few non-French chefs who joined the bake sale. “The people in the business know this. They know he would help them if they were in a difficult situation.”

Poussot â€" who formerly worked for Payard and Le Bernardin â€" was touched that friends he made during two decades in the city would come to his aid. “Now I see how loyal these friends are,” he said.

Almondine suffered $ 300,000 losses after flood waters filled the basement. His oven, his marble-topped work table, his well-stocked fridge and freezer â€" all ruined.

“It was everything I needed to make a living,” he said sadly.

Insurance company CNA told Poussot he couldn’t have a dime to cover losses at Almondine, which New York magazine named the city’s best bakery in 2009.

He needs $ 150,000 to replace or repair his equipment.

Fans of Poussot’s flaky croissants and crunchy-crusted baguettes stood in lines that snaked out Almondine’s door to buy bake-sale goodies.

Some shoppers told Valla they planned to donate to an online “Friends of Almondine” GoFundMe campaign. From Friday to Monday, pledges rose more than $ 2,500 to $ 23,462.

lcroghan@nydailynews.com