“The time was right,” says spokeswoman Marilyn Skinner from the Alexander’s Steakhouse Group about the launch last year of Alexander’s Patisserie in Mountain View. Proprietors of four gourmet steakhouses and a swanky seafood restaurant, the group wanted to capitalize on “the growing influx of new tech workers” who appreciate posh cuisine, she explains. Plus, “people are always interested in baked goods!” ManresaBread, the offshoot of the Michelin two-star in Los Gatos, had a more leisurely gestation. Head baker Avery Ruzicka started producing phenomenal carbs after hours in the restaurant’s kitchen in 2013 that were sold experimentally at two farmers markets. With fans lining up to buy her breads and pastries before the markets opened and quickly snapping up every crumb, it was soon clear that this project was a winner. However, a production facility and cute little retail shop near the restaurant didn’t open until early this year. Now assisted by a young team of bakers, Ruzicka is selective in what is created. “None of us are super excited about doing cakes, éclairs or cupcakes,” the standard fare at most bakeries, she explains. “We’re more interested in flavor,” she notes, as well as doing just a few perfectly executed bread and individual-pastry items that show off superb ingredients and painstaking technique. While ManresaBread is exploring milled-in-house flours and crafting unusual dessert treats, there’s still a market for timehonored recipes. Many South Bay residents continue to buy the classics—layer cakes, cookies and the like—from longtime establishments such as Dick’s Bakery and Prolific Oven, with four locations, while newer, multisite cupcake and cake shops that beef up retro items, making them larger and fancier, appeal to traditionalists and foodies. The best such chains with local outposts are Kara’s and Sprinkles for cupcakes and SusieCakes, selling luscious versions of pies, cakes, bars and brownies akin to what grandma wishes she used to make. Meanwhile, the demand for baked goods that were once esoteric to Middle America keeps chugging forward. Macarons— those colorful, meringue-based French confections featuring rich fillings—have become so popular that aficionados hunt for the 60 South Bay Accent ROXANNE ALEXANDER’S PATISSERIE best iterations around. Years ago, most people couldn’t even pronounce kouign amann (for the record, it’s “queen-ah-mahn”), a croissant-like pastry suffused with caramel, but now this delicacy pops up frequently in upscale local bakeries. Not surprisingly, French-type patisseries fused with modern sensibilities have been replacing the old-school bakeries of yore. Operations like Sugar Butter Flour, launched 11 years ago by former Manresa pastry chef Irit Ishai; Voyageur du Temps, opened last year by an ambitious Japanese-American; longtime local fave Bijan Bakery, founded by an Iranian-American; and Asian-inspired Satura Cakes all present picture-perfect pastries that are almost too pretty to eat but have flavors to match their lovely visuals. Culinary-school training is much in evidence at these popular spots, but it’s clearly not a requirement for local success when one considers Icing on the Cake in Los Gatos and Studio Cake in Menlo Park. A much-lauded patisserie that has been fulfilling dessert cravings for a few decades, the Los Gatos shop was started by Lynn Magnoli, who loved to bake but had no pastry education or experience before diving in. Driven by the goal of making everything taste incredible, her shop has expanded over the years and has become the source of addictions for virtually anyone biting into one of her treats. Up in Menlo Park, Bethann Goldberg went from rocket science to baking. She earned engineering degrees from Stanford then worked at NASA and in high tech before she decided in 2000 that she wanted to chuck it all and make specialty cakes. She had no training besides being a home baker, but after founding Studio Cake, she taught herself how to create truly miraculous wedding and party cakes, along the way becoming a three-time Food Network medal winner. While it’s hard to resist the pastries and desserts lined up on the shelves of the South Bay’s popular bakeries, premium bread baking has also been expanding here. Several high-end bakeries offer well-crafted breads along with their cakes and cookies, and the appearance of microbakeries is on the rise. MONKEY BREAD MANRESA BREAD
South Bay Accent - Oct/Nov 2015
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