La Madeleine Bakery and Cafe’s Kyle Hakim Chats Baked Goods in Charlotte
- Leena Trivedi-Grenier
- •
- 3 Min Read
- •
There’s nothing in the world like the flaky and buttery layers of a fresh-baked croissant. It’s what French expat Patrick Leon Esquerré missed the most about home when he moved to Dallas in the early 1980’s. He created the first La Madeleine Bakery to satisfy his own craving and turn others onto his favorite French baked fare like baguettes, tarts, and madeleines. More than thirty years later, La Madeleine Bakery and Cafe has grown to over 70 locations around the country.
In December 2016, franchise owner Kyle Hakim opened his own La Madeleine Bakery and Cafe location on the Charlotte catering scene. From there he runs a robust catering business with salads, sandwiches, baked goods and pastries. Croissant platters are a favorite and with elegant fillings like almond and blackberry cream cheese, it’s easy to understand why. La Madeleine Bakery’s menu includes plans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, making them a one-stop shop for Charlotte catering.
Kyle spoke with us about using ezCater, tips on ordering baked goods and serving them.
Can you tell us about the baked goods you offer and how you prepare them for catering?
Kyle Hakim: We bake everything fresh. We’re in the bakery each morning by at least 5 am, and bake until closing. We have catering orders every single day, so depending on how many we get, we sometimes have to come in even earlier. At La Madeleine Bakery and Cafe, we never make anything the day before, because we always want it to be fresh for our customers. We’ve got pastry chefs that work throughout the day to make our amazing pastries – the most popular are our fruit tarts and lemon tarts. We also sell little parfaits and cakes.
We never make anything the day before, because we always want it to be fresh for our customers Click To TweetHow do you prepare your baked goods for catering?
Hakim: La Madeleine Bakery and Cafe has catered for weddings and events at office buildings, birthday parties, baby showers, wedding showers, anything you can imagine. So we tailor every set-up for the actual event. When we sell baked goods, we usually take them on party tray platters. Sometimes, if it’s a holiday party, we set up a buffet line. If it’s an event at someone’s house, we’ll organize everything on a nice platter (which we will pick up later). We enjoy working with our customers and cater to them.
Any tips for people who want to cater desserts or baked goods from La Madeleine Bakery and Cafe?
Hakim: I would recommend our mini tart and parfait tray which is a selection of miniature versions of all our pastries. It’s a nice treat to let your guests mix and match different types of pastries, so they are not stuck just having one dessert. There are chocolate pastries, fruit tart pastries, lemon pastries, vanilla fruit parfaits, chocolate parfaits, and it’s just really the best way to get to know La Madeleine. As our guests grow more accustomed to our menu, we encourage them to try our larger-sized desserts for different events.
Do you have any advice for caterers who also provide baked goods?
Hakim: My advice for them is to always bake fresh and have a quality product, and the results will speak for themselves.
What has your experience been with ezCater?
Hakim: We partnered with ezCater six months ago and it’s been helpful to our catering business. We’ve been able to expose our brand to a larger market on the Charlotte catering scene. Since we are new to the area, we rely on the word of mouth that ezCater provides to us, and it creates a lot of opportunities that we really appreciate.
Want to try out La Madeleine Bakery and Cafe?