He is small and tubby with dark eyes, a goatee beard and a round face. To his army of female fans, he is the embodiment of the masculine ideal. Meet Pierre Hermé, France's most famous cake-maker and the man with a highway to the heart of every Parisienne.

Known to some as the Picasso of pastry, and to others as the Dior of desserts, Hermé is the ultimate gastronomic celebrity, with his creations carried on to catwalks by models and his public appearances accompanied by adulation and camera flashes.

Now, the phenomenon is set to hit Britain. “I'd love to open a shop in London,” he said yesterday. “I'm looking for the right place.” Hermé, 47, who has four boutiques in Paris and eight in Tokyo, was speaking at a book signing ceremony at his outlet at the top of the Champs Élysées. As usual, the cameras were rolling – this time for a documentary on TF1, France's most popular station – and as usual, his admirers had turned out in force.

Almost an hour before he arrived – late, as befitting a star – they were queueing to meet their hero and sample his delicacies. “It's going to be such a pleasure,” said Aissata Le Bas, 43. “When you eat something made by Hermé the emotion stays with you. It gives you frissons.”

Born into an eastern French family that boasts four generations of bakers, Hermé began his apprenticeship as a pastry chef at 14. He learnt how to master chocolate cakes, lemon tarts, millefeuille and other classic desserts. Above all, he discovered how to make macarons, the almond meringue biscuits of Italian origin that have earned him fame and fortune.

“When I started they were very simple and the only flavours used were coffee, chocolate, vanilla and raspberry. I worked to make them a lot more sexy.” He transformed the biscuit into something succulent and soft, and filled it with exotic ingredients.

One contains rose petal cream, raspberries and lychees. Another is made of Heinz tomato ketchup, Tabasco and pickles. His latest includes wasabi – spicy Japanese mustard – and grapefruit. “I thought wasabi, no way,” said Patrick Keuch, 50, who was queueing for Hermé to sign a book for his wife. “Then I tried it. It's exquisite.”

Such praise has propelled the chef to the pinnacle of French cuisine. The queues outside his Left Bank shop are so long that admirers have been ordered to take no more than two photographs of his cakes each to avoid increasing the delays.

Hermé puts his success down to instinct and hard work. “I've great culinary knowledge, which comes of tasting as many different things as possible, from McDonald's chicken nuggets to caviar,” he said.

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