For over a year now, we have been planning to get Frosty’s at Wendy’s but always settle for “the next best thing”, which always ends up being the “closest place”. Our last encounter was at Dufferin Mall – before all the renovations.  The latest excursion was to Dairy Queen for some Blizards.  The Frosty’s will be saved for another day.

Nick was nice enough to allow me to interview him for the Film Foodie blog.

Check it out.

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Olivia works as a food stylist for the CBC with Claudia Bianca and Floe Yeung. Olivia has worked for some of the best chefs in the food industry. She started in New York at the Natural Gourmet School Culinary arts and health and from there took an internship at Tomas Kellar’s, Per Se. Tomas Kellar is also wellknown as the author of the cook book, French Laundry which demonstrates basic cooking and how it is done properly.

The final test at Per Se for Olivia was to appropriately garnish the completed dishes; every garnish has to be correct.  Slicing chives was a challenge.  Olivia turned to Curin, a jananese knife store in New York that distributed their own line of knives and sells the top brands.  Curin offers knife sharpening classes to their customers which Olivia registered numerous times using a different alias each time.  Curin caught on to her scheme and began to teach her about how to sharp her particular knife. Having a knife that was sharpen correctly made it easier to slice chives correctly. From this experience Olivia became obsessed with the art of a correctly sharpened knife and the importance to detail.

Olivia feels that this specialized art is dying and is working at changing this. The Good Egg offers a course taught by Olivia teaching basic knife skills every Sunday. Check out the story of Olivia’s class in the Toronto Star.

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Quickly after checking out the Desmond and Beatrice website I sent an email inquiring about an interview. The baker and owner, Amanda, responded right away.  Check out the interview below:

When did you decide to start Desmond & Beatrice?

Amanda: I started Desmond and Beatrice while on maternity leave.  Much to the encouragement of my friends and family, who I am forever baking for, I decided to start a business from something that I love to do, that I was getting great support for, and that would allow me to take care of my baby.  My website has only been up and running for approximately 3 months and the response is amazing!

As a relatively new business, what is the focus of Desmond and Beatrice?

Amanda: Desmond and Beatrice is all about back to basics, down home mama’s baking.  We are comfort baking.  Our focus is offering you treats that your grandma may have made, or that you remember from a certain occasion or event.  We of course have plenty of interesting and unique items on our menu, for example: curried cashews and pumpkin spice cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting, but it really comes down to taste.  It has to be delicious or we just won’t offer it.  We also really try to take a personal approach when fulfilling orders, we will make modifications, customize orders, and do our best to offer you what you want.

A friend won the contest you hosted on your facebook page.  She received a delivery of a dozen Red Velvet cupcakes.  My first impression was that they aesthetically looked amazing. How important is the presentation of your baked goods?

Amanda: Yes!  That contest was really fun!!  I often have fun little give away contests on facebook to encourage people to become fans of the page and to thank the fans that are already there.  Presentation, along with taste, are paramount for Desmond and Beatrice.  I am not so concerned with creating and making sweets that are so pretty that you feel you shouldn’t eat them, but rather I focus on a simple and pretty presentation that you can then rip open and get right in to!

Recently, I have noticed an increasing number of cupcake oriented books and products that are available, is this a new trend?

Amanda: Cupcakes are where it’s at!!!  It is my number one selling item and rightfully so.   The cupcake trend, so to speak, is not a new one; I believe that cupcakes are trendy but they are here to stay.  I have an increasing amount of interest in cupcakes in lieu of wedding cakes, and we have numerous weddings booked for this upcoming summer.  We offer cupcakes for birthday parties, corporate gifts, custom orders, and our biggest focus is sending cupcakes instead of flowers!  I am not knocking flowers, I love flowers… I just love cupcakes more!

What is your favorite baked good?

Amanda: Oh I can’t possibly pick one favorite baked good… warm cinnamon buns on a Sunday morning, fresh baked cookies (we will deliver frozen rolled cookie dough that you can pop in the oven as you like and take all the credit for) of any kind,  chocolate brownies, ooo I love brownies, or maybe a carrot cupcake with cream cheese icing?  I honestly can’t pick, I love it all, and if it isn’t a sincere love for me, you won’t find it on the menu!

Not sure what to get that special someone for Valentines Day?

Forget the flowers, send cupcakes!!  The NEW Desmond and Beatrice Valentines Day menu.