Chef Bébé Tourment grew up on Les Saintes — a tiny archipelago off the southern coast of Guadeloupe where the streets are narrow, the fishing boats come in early, and tourment d’amour has been made the same way for generations. The tart is specific to Les Saintes: a buttery shell filled with coconut jam, sometimes layered with sponge cake, sometimes finished with a dusting of cinnamon. It belongs to this place and nowhere else.

Her work centers on Saintoise pastry tradition — tourment d’amour made with fresh coconut confiture cooked slowly until it thickens and deepens, the shell baked to a precise golden color, and the balance between the buttery crust and the sweet coconut filling maintained carefully. Bébé understands that tourment d’amour is not just a dessert — it is the thing Les Saintes is known for, made and sold by women on the dock since the fishing boats first came in and visitors first arrived. It is a dessert with a specific geography and she treats it accordingly.

In Universo da Doçura, Chef Bébé represents a pastry tradition so specific it belongs to a handful of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Her tourment d’amour is always made with fresh coconut. Her pastry shell is always properly golden.