Saturday, July 18, 2009

My birthday cake

My birthday cake this year was from Rahier Patisserie in Toronto's Leaside community, my favourite neighbourhood in the city.
Not only does Rahier (pronounced Ra-yeh, the H is silent) produce the city's best croissants in my opinion, but they also gave me my start in journalism.
I wrote a feature about this pastry shop during university when Belgian-born owners Sonia and Francois Rahier gave me access to the shop and also the kitchen where the magic happens. I pitched the piece to the Toronto Star and it was published in the Food section, my first freelance piece. From there I kept freelancing for the Food section, then the Life section until I got my own column and ended up working at the Globe and Mail. The rest is history but I will always feel like I owe Rahier for my first break.
This cake is called Balzac, it is a caramel mousse with cognac-sauteed pears and cognac-soaked sponge cake.
Divine.

1 comment:

creampuff said...

Mary,

What a tremendous story! And of course I couldn't agree more about Rahier. Happy belated birthday!