This downtown bakery offers new twists to classic French pastries

Suesh Doss: I'm still trying to determine why we've seen close to a dozen or so shiny new French bakeries that all kind of arrived around the same time in the last year. And we're talking about  a specific breed of bakery. The architecture is very inspired by the modern patisseries you will find in Paris and Tokyo; there's a lot of marble, shiny display cases, meticulously labelled pastries.

I think this is Toronto jumping on a trend. And I don't mean to sound negative, I am a big, big pastry fan. I can't get enough of it. Which is why I want to talk Geste Croissanterie It's a small bakery near Trinity Bellwoods. But it doesn't exactly have that polish and glamoured look. Here's owner Virgyl Fernandes.

"I have no family here, it's just me. Originally I wanted to study music but, being from an Indian family full of engineers, music was not an option, you're not going to make money. The more respectable thing was to go to hotel school. To be honest, the idea was that hotel school would be easy. But the second year was bakery and that's when I knew, 'Yeah, I like doing this.'"

And so this journey through culinary school brings Virgyl to Toronto, where he goes to George Brown for culinary arts. He meets Bikramjit Singh Chadha there. They quickly become friends over their love of pastry. 

He slowly starts working his way through the hospitality industry, and then he heads up in Oakville.

Jason D'Souza: And what happened there? 

Suresh Doss: Well, Virgyl was hired on as a pastry chef for a new bakery in Oakville. This was in January 2020. Then the pandemic happened; we locked down in March. And then in April, Virgyl gets notice that he's no longer employed.

Jason D'Souza: This is the story of so many restaurant workers in this province.

Suresh Doss: Yeah, I'll be honest. I have spoken to many cooks and chefs in the past year and I have heard countless stories of how stressful this time was and how it impacted their mental health. 

For Virgyl, it was a turning point. 

"The month of April was pretty rough, pretty depressed. There was isolation; you couldn't go out, couldn't do nothing. Anytime you have something like this in your life, it's a real check. You look yourself in the mirror and ask: 'Is this where you want to be?' I thought, I know the product I make is good, what I can do is good. So that was the initial plan — let's do this."

Jason D'Souza: I have to say I love this story; being from an Indian family of engineers who wanted to study music and now he's an engineer. It's kind of perfect. So what is Geste like?

Suresh Doss: This is a tiny space, when you first enter it, it feels like you're in this endless narrow corridor. It's very barebones. It was home to an art gallery before and Virgyl probably just refreshed it with paint. 

You have to follow your senses to the display of pastries. Virgyl and Bikramjit bake a range of fresh pastries daily, including a variety of croissants.

What stands out for me here is they use a bit of sourdough starter in the dough to give it a little depth but its a fresh ferment as well. Virgyl ferments the dough at a higher temperature to pull out the sweeter notes, and that really stands out. And there is this glorious pull and tear in the croissant, when you cut into it you'll see this wonderful honeycomb pattern. 

So on any day, you'll see an assortment of almond and chocolate croissants. There are kouign amann, which are those meticulously layered sweet pastry that have a slightly custard like centre, and also a variety of specials on the weekend.

Jason D'Souza: You are making my mouth water so hard, it's breakfast radio run amok. Do you have a favourite pastry from Geste?

Suresh Doss: It's a place that presents something new with each visit, especially on the weekend. Virgyl will do maybe four or five specials on the weekends. He recently did an apple tatin a few weeks ago. So there is always something interesting. 

And once in a while, he will use something from his Indian heritage and make something interesting. He had a puff pastry stuffed with kheema. That was really interesting. That gets me excited, seeing two guys bringing their ideas and heritage together and coalescing it with French baking. 

It takes the genre of French baking in a unique direction in a multicultural city like Toronto. But it's not always well received.

Jason D'Souza: What do you mean?

Suresh Doss: Well, there is a classic, perhaps outdated, perception of how certain cuisine should look and who should be preparing it. 

I spoke to Virgyl at length about this. 

"I would say 99 per cent of the people who come here have all been amazing. But then there is, like, the one person who made the very pointed comment, 'Oh but you're not French.'

"We had one person come in and point and say, 'Where did you get this stuff from?' And I said, 'We make this here,' and she just walked out of the store. At the end of the day food transcends all of these things. If you're going to be honest in your food and you're going to tell the story of where the food comes from, that's all that's required."

Jason D'Souza: In a lot of ways it all sounds so exciting. I can't think of two more polar opposite cuisine when it comes to spice levels. It lends itself to a whole new world of creativity. 

Suresh Doss: And in this case too, we're seeing something different in Toronto that you probably couldn't find in France or India. It's styles and cultures mixing and bringing something new.