With Christmas and its array of desserts just a few days away, we thought it would be nice to feature something which wasn't a Christmas tart, cake or pudding. There are better ways to end the big Christmas dinner. It seemed like a good time to talk about the delights of Vaniye French Patisserie.
Sonia Haumonte is not one of those people who came to food late in life. As a child growing up in Thailand, her parents always had restaurants and she has been obsessed with all things food since then. As a teen, she lived in New Zealand but eventually succumbed to the seduction of living in Europe and it was there she fell in love with French desserts.
"I still remember seeing my first French cake shop and my eyes nearly bulging out of my head. It was all just so beautiful. I enrolled myself in a patisserie course as a personal challenge, and it's been my life since," says Sonia. Serendipitously, she fell in love with a Frenchman, who was as obsessed as she. That one year in Europe turned into seven years as a pastry chef in Paris.
Laurent and Sonia eventually decided to move to New Zealand for a quieter life and soon realised there was a gap in the market for this high-end product. "We decided to share our passion and started selling cakes at markets. Those first four weeks were awful! Masterchef hadn't started yet and many people hadn't seen a macaron before, let alone a St Honore. We couldn't even get people to try our cakes and I would almost be in tears by the end of the morning." recalls Sonia.
But slowly it changed. Expats and travelled market-goers started sampling the pastries and it went from there - so much so that now Vaniye now have their own premises in Parnell.
