I had a chat with Peter Fong who owns the Ganache Patisserie located in Yaletown.

You have been around for 15 years, from when you started in the beginning to what you are offering to customers now, tell me about it 

We have expanded our café selection a lot more since we had started, we had 8 dessert items on the menu and now we have 24 dessert items on the menu. We make more Viennoiserie so croissants and things like that.

Would you say with your baked goods and croissants in general, when you started years ago, was it a big thing in Vancouver or has it developed over time?

It wasn’t a big thing back then, we were one of the first to do the new French style of croissants, probably the past decade has seen a boom in new pastry shops offering croissants around the city.

What is the standout croissant for you here at Ganache?

Our double baked almond croissant

Lately I have seen you do a raspberry version?

Yes we have a raspberry almond croissant, it has a layer of marzipan inside with homemade raspberry jam, glazed with icing on the outside.

On the cake side of things, what is the latest as far as trends for design of cakes go?

I have seen a lot of cakes being naked or massed in different types of buttercream, then adding on dripping types of glaze running down them, people like to see dripping gold running down the cakes or yummy chocolate glaze, then adding some decorative elements on top.

15 years is a long time, before you opened back then what was your idea from what you did before to opening your patisserie shop in Yaletown?

It was my dream to open up shop, but my first thought after graduating from culinary school, I wanted to open a dessert café but after working in hotels and seeing how that part of the business worked and making wedding cakes from home on the side, that is what drove the business when I first opened. I ended up becoming well known for making wedding cakes and things like that and having the showcase with our unique desserts and cake flavours, that is how that evolved, that is how it grew from 8-24 desserts, changing menus 3 or 4 times a year, and being able to add on new items and not being able to take desserts off the menu, somehow the menu just keeps on growing.

I know you have done a lot of cakes from your collection on your instagram, is their one that stands out in your memory for being the hardest one you have made or popular?

I have done so many, some for Bar Mitzvahs, we have done an Empire State building cake, we have done some cool Harry Potter and Super Hero themed birthday cakes, we have done a 12 tier cake for a wedding that had 400-500 guests attending, some challenges in terms of how to assemble it there.

Ganache Patisserie is located at 1262 Homer Street the Yaletown neighborhood in downtown Vancouver and can be reached by phone at (604) 899-1098 as well you can follow them on instagram @ganacheyaletown

Stay tuned for the next chef in the The Baker series.

By: Richard Wolak