No ordinary cup of tea: Le Artisan Boulangerie

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October 5, 2018
by Surabhi Mehta

All in good taste

Riddhi Patel, a dedicated baker, passionate businesswoman and owner of one of a kind artisan bread bakery of Ahmedabad- Le Artisan Boulangerie, shares her career notes with us from an avid learner to a loyal baker.

Personal Life

Riddhi Patel finished her commerce degree followed by her masters in marketing in London. After she completed her finishing school at Institute Villa Pierrefeu in London, she took up a baking course in Le Cordon Bleu, London and fell in love with baking. A dog lover, traveller and a fashion forward Riddhi, realized her love for cooking at a very early age. After her education, Riddhi came back to the city and started missing the breads that she enjoyed abroad all the time and that pushed her to the kitchen. Sooner than ever she made up her mind to pursue her career in baking as the process calmed her down and noticed the dire need in the market for breads. “I love chefs who stretch their boundaries and experiment all the time, hence, Dominique Ansel, who invented cronuts and traditionalists like Lionel Poilane, a French baker that perfected the art of bread making are two bakers who inspire me the most” shares Riddhi.

The Bakery Items

Innovation, is what Le Artisan Boulangerie abides by. The bakery is highly focused on experimenting and altering everyday. They work around the basic whole wheat bread, but the aim is to sneak in some healthy ingredients in their items as well. Hence, bran that is a great source of fiber is added in ways. “With our pumpkin bread, or beetroot bread, we add ingredients that people might not like to otherwise consume but since it is made in the form of breads, people really enjoy it”, explains Riddhi, a health enthusiast. All the breads at Le Artisan are made with extra virgin olive oil only that are tested by government approved agencies and one can be confident about getting what is mentioned on the label. So, when an item says EVOO, it really does have EVOO. Riddhi, is more than particular about her ingredients and there is no two ways about the fact. Riddhi, our kitchen lover, expresses her devotion to concoct new things everyday by playing around with varied ingredients and using them in different ways. She is in constant push and pull between her kitchen and managing the bakery, sourcing ingredients, marketing packaging, etc, but she is the happiest in the kitchen.

The main aim of Le Artisan Boulangerie, however, was to start a bakery to meet the lack of varied breads in Ahmedabad, so from croissants, sourdoughts, pretzels, bagels, bagel bombs, baguettes, cronuts etc, Riddhi wishes to make the bakes of the world available to all the bread lovers in Ahmedabad. The bakery also expertises in doing breads for varied diets like KETO bread and gluten free bread. The bakery is the first to start these in Ahmedabad. “Also, the other aim of the bakery is to make things simple for the ladies back home, with busy schedules all around, we make throwing parties easy with some scrumptious lavash and dips, ready to serve canapes, individual desserts in bowls, cream cheese platter off many others”. When asked about the bakery’s most selling items, Riddhi shared that bagels and cream cheese are the top sellers, but while she never expected, lavash of sorts, flies out the door along with the dips. Nutella brownies and salted caramel and pecan brownies also rank amongst the top.

As for the Baker’s Choice Desserts, Riddhi recommends her personal favourites are toblerone mousse, chocolate chip muffin, cronut and salted caramel and pecan brownie. She recommends eclairs from the new menu she recently learnt, that taste fabulous too.

Experience at Le Artisan Boulangerie

A scrumptious tea-time table ready to be savoured.

Boulangerie is French, and the course that Riddhi pursued at Le Cordon Bleu was called Boulangerie and since her course was specializing in French techniques of bread making, the name is given to give a look and feel of the French. The café is given a European vibe with intricate detailings to the interiors, colours palettes, plants and seating. From their cutleries, packaging to approach everything has been given a unique French accent, different than most of the bakeries in Ahmedabad.

Hi- Tea at Le Artisan Boulangerie

Le Artisan Boulangerie is now expanded for people to sit down and enjoy their fresh bakes with a spot of tea or coffee. With their space expansion they have also extended their dessert counters with unique desserts like cupcakes, macaroons and many others. Le Artisan shall bring in couple of special dishes every month, that shall be available in store and not online, along with afternoon tea in collaboration with Kitchen Therapy India and The Kitchen Trail.

Le Artisan Boulangerie shall serve afternoon tea between 3-6 pm everyday with a lavish spread of desserts, scones and some spectacular tea options from the Three Clive Road. The Hi- Tea menu is a collaborative effort between The Kitchen Therapy (menu design) and the Kitchen Trail (styling and shoot) and many others like Hello Sunshine Floristry, My Art Connect, Linens and Shades and Three Clive Road, The Gourmet Jar and Nira Ceramics.

The menu has an amazing selection of Three Clive Road teas for customers along with options in coffee. Finger Sandwiches made using different sandwich breads, in house scones clotted cream and jam by gourmet jar and various options alongwith, desserts and macarons shall be available for hi- tea.

It also bares an 8-people private seating for huge groups of people. Le Artisan Boulangerie is focused on quality and health along with innovation in their items, for anyone who enjoys tea, loves breads, are health conscious, girlfriends looking for lavish afternoon of fun and conversations over tea/coffee and anyone who enjoys and wants a unique experience are who we are looking forward to welcome.

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