English text by Irene Luo
Pictures courtesy of B. Patisserie
When we ask Belinda Leong about her special granola, her face lights up. “Want me to get some? Do you want to try it?” She quickly disappears and reappears holding a neatly packaged bag of granola.
The granola is delightful: It smells like popcorn and has a kind of heartwarming deliciousness that reminded me of childhood. Belinda describes it better: “It’s like a party of textures in your mouth. It’s crunchy, airy, crispy, and it’s not sweet.” Once you start, it’s hard to stop, and it tastes wonderful on its own, without milk or yogurt. Over the next few days, I keep popping some into my mouth.
At her bakery in San Francisco, b. Patisserie, Belinda conjures up a delightful assortment of pastries that are much like her granola—enchanting combinations of flavors and textures that excite your taste buds without ever feeling too sweet or intense. The bakery caters to crowds seeking lighter desserts, the kind that you can enjoy every day.
Since Belinda opened b. Patisserie with Michel Suas, a renowned baker and pastry chef from France, they’ve built it into a neighborhood fixture and one of the most beloved bakeries in San Francisco. Belinda and Michel were also recently honored with the 2018 James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker. Each of their meticulously baked pastries represents their humble, sincere heart toward their customers.
Creating B. Patisserie
Belinda fell in love with pastry when she started filling in for the empty pastry chef position at Michelin-starred Restaurant Gary Danko. She had previously been making savory cuisine there, but she soon found that dessert-making was “more fun and more whimsical.”
To hone her skills, she enrolled at the San Francisco Baking Institute where she met Michel, the institute’s founder.
“She failed. She failed,” Michel says, as Belinda begins to laugh. “You want to know the truth? She was falling asleep in class.” This French native is always making people laugh with his banter. But he laters explains that she had a good excuse, as she was working night shifts at Restaurant Gary Danko until 1 a.m. after attending class from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day.
Outside of the classroom, Belinda excelled in lab at the San Francisco Baking Institute and impressed Michel. And she was always eager for more opportunities to learn hands-on. After eight years at Gary Danko, she flew to Europe to stage for giants in the culinary and pastry world like Pierre Hermé in France, Bubó in Spain, Noma in Denmark, and In de Wulf in Belgium.
Michel may be a teacher now, but he too was never particularly suited for learning in a classroom. Back when he was a teenager in France, he was deemed too rowdy, and at 14, he was told to go learn a trade. So he chose cooking, later switched to pastry, and by 21, he was the head pastry chef of Restaurant Charles Barrier, one of the few French restaurants honored with three Michelin stars. It was nerve-wracking—“You never gain weight because you’re scared”—but also wonderfully fun.
After two or three years, Michel was ready for a new adventure, so he flew to the United States with a backpack and three hundred dollars to begin his career anew. Now he’s the go-to guy for artisan bread and pastry, offering advice to many establishments like La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles and Balthazar in New York City.
When Belinda returned to San Francisco, she sought Michel’s advice on starting her own bakery. Together, they built b. Patisserie, the culmination of their shared vision. Their bakery unites the exquisite high-end pastries of France with the casual, relaxed vibe of San Francisco. It’s comfortable and welcoming—no chef coats, no chef hats—and the open kitchen allows people to see all the dessert-making magic. It’s elegant without being pretentious.
Instead of choosing the busiest part of town, Belinda and Michel went for a quieter part of San Francisco. It’s not the kind of place you stumble upon while walking through the city. It’s the kind of place you hear about from friends and go searching for. “The store is a bit away from the foot traffic, so whoever decides to come, they decided to,” Michel says. “You see people coming with big smiles because it’s a destination.”
Flavor and Texture
Both Belinda and Michel don’t eat too many sweets, contrary to expectation. So why do they spend all day making them? “When you don’t like sweets, you try to find something better. You’re never pleased,” Michel says.
In a single pastry, Belinda never uses more than three flavors, so she doesn’t confuse the palate. Besides the flavors typically found in French pastry, she also incorporates more Asian ingredients, like red bean, sago, mango, coconut, green tea, and almond jello.
So what makes the ideal dessert? “The flavors pop, and they’re alive in my mouth, and there’s a lot of textures that surprise my palate and a balance of sweetness to savory to saltiness. I’d say that’s a good dessert—when it’s completely balanced,” Belinda says.
Michel elaborates with a description of the perfect croissant: “It has to be that when you bite on it, you get a little crust on it; you can hear a little crust. Then you go through it and start to feel a little more of a velvety texture, and then all of a sudden you have an explosion of flavor with the butter and fermentation.”
Building a Community
Every day, customers pour into b. Patisserie to get their “shot of sugar or happiness” as Michel likes to phrase it. “You can become a little cocky and pretentious because of the crowd,” Michel says. He makes sure to remind their team of bakers to value their customers, to stay humble and sincere, and to deliver the best pastry to everyone who walks through the door. “Every customer is one customer who decided to come, and we need to take care of them as individuals,” Michel says.
With the open kitchen, the bakers at b. Patisserie can savor people’s eager, smiling faces as they point at their favorite pastries or take a bite into Belinda’s famous kouign-amanns. It harkens back to the days when bakeries were places people went to every day. “Our pastries are not too heavy. They’re quite light, and it’s not very sweet, so people can consume it every day.” Belinda says.
B. Patisserie has become a special place, a place for friends and families to create memories and share happiness. “You become so used to the kids in the strollers, talking, and then all of a sudden, kids start to recognize you. The kids are the ones that always want to come, so you see almost a generation growing with you,” Michel says.
One lady in the neighborhood would always crave the fluffy and moist scones at b. Patisserie when she was pregnant, so much so that her baby became affectionately known as the “scone baby.”
“It’s almost like building a small community. That’s what’s nice,” Belinda says.
