Last week, two days before Suzette Bakery in Bandra was to open its doors to the public, our conversation with the three co-founders – Jérémie Sabbagh, Pierre Labail and Antonia Achache – kept getting interrupted by curious onlookers, who assumed the eatery had already commenced operations. The trio have also been busy teasing netizens with enticing images of goodies one can expect from the bakery on social media.
With Suzette and Kitchen Garden firmly established as brands with identities of their own, the partners felt that it was time they started a traditional French bakery. “People would ask us for breads and croissants, and we felt there was no authentic French bakery here,” says Achache. With that in mind, she and Sabbagh enrolled themselves at the Paris School of Bakery and Patisserie five years ago. Armed with baking and pastry making skills, the trio put a lot of thought and effort into what they would want to showcase here. “For instance, Jérémie took almost a year to develop the gluten-free five grains sourdough, tweaking it constantly, to come up with what we would be serving here,” she adds.
Keeping it simple
Sharing a wall with Kitchen Garden, the cozy bakery overlooks a small sitting area surrounded with green plants. An artistic black and white marble counter top takes centre stage inside, with bread shelves and a coffee counter in the corner. It’s almost like a mini Parisian space in the midst of all the Bandra hustle bustle. Delving a little into what they will be offering, Sabbagh says that while their ‘three babies’ have identities of their own, the one thing that’s common to all is their use of organic and local produce. The bread menu, for instance, incorporates a lot of whole ancient grains like rye, buckwheat, emmer, oats etc. “We use our own sourdough starter and use a lot of nutrition-dense seeds as well,” he says, cutting a thick slice from the Emmer and Buckwheat sourdough loaf and pushing it towards us. A thin smear of butter and we taste its wholesome goodness.
Even the pastries are uncomplicated, no frills attached. “We prefer baker’s pastries which are more traditional, less sophisticated,” he adds. The menu is an interesting selection of puff pastries, traditional French pastries, cakes, sandwiches, quiches, cold cuts with teas, coffee and juice. While this is their first outlet, the founders, who have received their second round of funding, now plan to open more outlets of all their three brands across the city.
Health and indulgence
The tasting of the nutritious Emmer and Buckwheat bread over, we move on to the more indulgent goodies. The Puff Brioche is light, buttery soft but with the thickness and layers of a croissant. “Dip it in hot chocolate and it’s just wow!” pipes in Labail, who we discover, is the one with the sweet tooth among the three (and can also cuss like Bunty in Sacred Games , if the need arises). The Chocolate Tart has a Valhrona dark chocolate ganache inside. The Valhrona Chocolate Fondant is flourless and light, with melted ganache in the centre. There’s the classic French pastry Mille-feuille, Pavlova, Carrot Cake and Madeleines on the menu too. The Paris Brest made of choux pastry, praline buttercream and grilled hazelnuts is a winner in every way possible, and trio insist I take a doggybag of the same, so I could have it the next day. It’s a different story that one tends to feel hungry in a long ride back home in an Uber.
Suzette Bakery, Bandra West; 66940027
