A French bakery in Arizona became the unexpected center of an online drama after its owner, Jenna Leurquin (@jlpatisserie), called out an influencer who allegedly demanded free pastries in exchange for a positive review.
Featured VideoIn a now-viral TikTok, Jenna said she refused to give in to what she described as “bullying,” and instead decided to explain her side to her followers.
Her video, which has earned more than 7.9 million views, showed Jenna walking through her bakery, Jenna Leurquin Patisserie, while explaining the situation.
AdvertisementShe said, “So we recently had an influencer reach out to us and asked to do a collaboration, and we respectfully declined because it was not in our budget right now.” However, according to Jenna, the influencer didn’t take “no” for an answer.
Jenna defended her work and ingredients
Jenna continued, “Then she essentially tried to blackmail us by saying if we offered the food for free, she would then write a good review about us.”
Even after being turned down, the influencer came in the next day. “Although we hadn’t agreed to collab with her, we recognized her when she came in, and we still were very accommodating and offered her extra drinks,” Jenna said.
AdvertisementThe situation escalated after the influencer allegedly left a bad review. Jenna addressed it directly in the video, saying, “We totally respect a bad review, but what we don’t like is lying and bullying. The first thing she said was that our pistachio was ‘so fake.’” She then pointed to her ingredients, adding, “Fun fact, we have right here our pistachio paste that is 100% pistachios from Italy.”
As she toured her bakery, Jenna explained the time and care that goes into each pastry. “Beyond the fact that we spend 10 times the amount of money to buy the ingredients, the most valuable part of our product is the time we spend to make them,” she said. She also described how her team uses imported flour from Italy and spends months perfecting recipes by hand.
Eventually, Jenna addressed what she saw as a bigger issue: influencer entitlement. “The problem is if the next generation is influenced by her to believe it’s okay to bully and disrespect the food industry,” she said. She ended the video by thanking her customers, saying, “It’s thanks to you that since day one, I get to live my dream of having a bakery.”
Advertisement@jlpatisserie I will forever dedicate my time and energy to continue to make it right to the people who value my teams hard work and have respected us and supported us since day one. #review #influencer #bakery ♬ original sound – JLPATISSERIE
The influencer responded with her own version of events
Not long after the post, the influencer, known online as Glamorama (@glamoramaaaa), responded. Despite not being tagged and having her name blocked out in Jenna’s clip, Glamorama identified herself. With sarcasm, she said, “Godd*mn, someone finally stood up to me. You know, I gotta say, f*cking kudos. For real. I respect that. I do.”
She denied Jenna’s claims, adding, “I never said that I would leave a good review for a free meal. I have never done that and I will never do that.” Glamorama insisted she even complimented the bakery, saying, “The pumpkin one that I loved and raved about, I’m not exaggerating. It was still phenomenal, and I’ll stand by that.”
Advertisement@glamoramaaaaI never said I would write a good review. I said I would do an honest review. I said if it was terrible, I wouldn’t do a review at all for the hospitality. I gave her a chance to respond to my feedback before I posted the reel to be fair. Which, I have never done before. But because she is a woman owned business I wanted to give her a little extra slack. All she said was thanks for the feedback. No questions of what went wrong or what they could have done better. I have received terrible meals for free, and never posted them because I could not say they were good. I have also been offered a lot of money to post nice things about restaurants and turned it down every single time. I always make sure the server is covered with a 20% tip whether that comes out of my pocket or the restaurants. I came here because I heard it was great and I wanted to do a positive review. I still said nice things about the pastries. I do think they are a bit rich and sweet for my taste. But I did love the pumpkin one.
♬ original sound – glamorama
However, commenters overwhelmingly sided with Jenna. Many argued that the influencer’s response proved her attitude, while others criticized influencer culture as a whole. Some pointed out the irony that Glamorama had around 9.9K followers compared to the bakery’s 82.5K.
Jenna Leurquin did not respond immediately to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTok comment.
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