Croissant Challenge Winners

The 2nd Vancouver Foodster Croissant Challenge was a great success featuring unique creations at bakeries and cafes around Metro Vancouver.  Each bakery featured their creation on their menu from March 4-28, 2021 and their customers voted for their favourites daily throughout the challenge for their People’s Choice favourites.

The Winners are:

1st Place:

{116 points}

Casereccio Foods

Oops, I dropped the affogato in the croissant

Price: $7.50

Created by: the team

Description: In-house baked croissant blended with pistachio gelato, topped with white chocolate and a delicious shot of espresso. An affogato in the croissant creates the creamy and buttery taste, a simple yet delicious croissant made with love!

Available: all the time

Casereccio Foods

2480 Vine Street, Vancouver

Tel: 604-734-4440

Web: www.caserecciofood.com

Instagram @casereccio_foods

2nd Place:

{108 points}

Nelson The Seagull

Sunshine Bun

Price: $6

Created by: Meara Shanley + Nelson the Seagull

Description: A buttery croissant filled with fresh lemon curd, rolled in lemon zest sugar & topped with torched meringue and a candied lemon rind.

Offered: Weekdays 8-3 / Weekends 9-4 / Holiday’s 9-3. NOTE: For orders of 4 or more please call to pre-order one day in advance.

Nelson The Seagull

315 Carrall Street, Vancouver

Tel: (604) 681-5776

Web: https://www.nelsontheseagull.com/

Instagram @nelsontheseagull

3rd Place (tie):

{99 points}

Swiss Bakery

Royal Banoffee

Price: $ 5.80

Created by: Chef Fabiana Zaranza

Description: The British dessert has recently landed into Vancouver’s existence. This insanely delicious Banoffee croissant is a combination of two words, “Banana and Toffee.” The filling experience becomes with a magical line of caramel sauce on one side and caramelized bananas with a pinch of cinnamon to another side, making you taste the caramel sauce and the bananas with cinnamon independently.

The flaky pastry is dressing up “The crown” with caramel-toffee chunks plus bananas chips. To sum up, the delicate torched meringue frosting adds even more height and luxury to our creation. The original Royal Banoffee is exclusive.

Offered: Monday to Friday 8am -5pm at their takeout window (limited quantity). Orders can be placed online as well at www.swissbakery.ca NOTE: For orders of 3 or more please call to pre-order one day in advance. Delivery Service is available every Friday, the cut-off time Thursday at Noon. Also available to order by Uber Eats and Doordash.

Swiss Bakery

143 E. 3rd Avenue, Vancouver

Tel: (604) 736-8785

Web: https://swissbakery.ca/

Instagram @swissbakeryyvr

In the People’s Choice Awards category, the public who tried the Croissant Creations were the ones who had the opportunity to cast their vote throughout the challenge.

The Winners are:

1st Place People’s Choice:

Nelson The Seagull

Sunshine Bun

Price: $6

Created by: Meara Shanley + Nelson the Seagull

Description: A buttery croissant filled with fresh lemon curd, rolled in lemon zest sugar & topped with torched meringue and a candied lemon rind.

Offered: Weekdays 8-3 / Weekends 9-4 / Holiday’s 9-3. NOTE: For orders of 4 or more please call to pre-order one day in advance.

Nelson The Seagull

315 Carrall Street, Vancouver

Tel: (604) 681-5776

Web: https://www.nelsontheseagull.com/

Instagram @nelsontheseagull

2nd Place People’s Choice:

Casereccio Foods

Oops, I dropped the affogato in the croissant

Price: $7.50

Created by: the team

Description: In-house baked croissant blended with pistachio gelato, topped with white chocolate and a delicious shot of espresso. An affogato in the croissant creates the creamy and buttery taste, a simple yet delicious croissant made with love!

Available: all the time

Casereccio Foods

2480 Vine Street, Vancouver

Tel: 604-734-4440

Web: www.caserecciofood.com

Instagram @casereccio_foods

3rd Place People’s Choice:

Swiss Bakery

Royal Banoffee

Price: $ 5.80

Created by: Chef Fabiana Zaranza

Description: The British dessert has recently landed into Vancouver’s existence. This insanely delicious Banoffee croissant is a combination of two words, “Banana and Toffee.” The filling experience becomes with a magical line of caramel sauce on one side and caramelized bananas with a pinch of cinnamon to another side, making you taste the caramel sauce and the bananas with cinnamon independently.

The flaky pastry is dressing up “The crown” with caramel-toffee chunks plus bananas chips. To sum up, the delicate torched meringue frosting adds even more height and luxury to our creation. The original Royal Banoffee is exclusive.

Offered: Monday to Friday 8am -5pm at their takeout window (limited quantity). Orders can be placed online as well at www.swissbakery.ca NOTE: For orders of 3 or more please call to pre-order one day in advance. Delivery Service is available every Friday, the cut-off time Thursday at Noon. Also available to order by Uber Eats and Doordash.

Swiss Bakery

143 E. 3rd Avenue, Vancouver

Tel: (604) 736-8785

Web: https://swissbakery.ca/

Instagram @swissbakeryyvr

Our media judging panel determined the ultimate winners of the challenge, and this was quite the task as each judge who tasted each creation with a rigorous process based on taste, originality/uniqueness and presentation/appearance.

Each media judge scored each creation with a maximum of 40 points as follows: Overall Taste 20 points, Originality and Uniqueness 10 points, Presentation and Appearance 10 points. The highest number of points a challenge creation could have been awarded is 120 points.

Our Media judges for this challenge were: Deanna Woo, Rose Lin and Tony Huynh

Thank you to the chefs and establishments that accepted my invitation and featured their croissants on the menu for the past few weeks during this challenge.

I encourage you to visit the winning places to try their Croissants creations! See the entries here.

By: Richard Wolak

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