WORKING: Expertise and passion are two necessary ingredients for successful bakers,
CAFÉ OWNERS mix dedication, passion and tradition for winning recipe
TORONTO – We tend to talk about how important it is to love the work we do, while stressing the need for boundaries between our personal and professional lives.
But for Nadege Nourian and Morgan Mchugh, life partners and coowners of Nadege Patisserie in Toronto, those lines between work and life, between personal and professional – even between art and business – are often blurred. Nadege was founded upon a passion for the craft of baking and the shared vision of Nourian and Mchugh.
“(Morgan) is totally supportive of what I do,” says Nourian, who says she doesn’t know if she could have accomplished as much as she has without Mchugh.
“He’s actually as passionate as me about what we do. He’s my biggest fan, so it’s very nice … And you know when, you’re a couple, you’re much stronger.”
Of course, it takes more than passion to run a successful business, it also takes expertise, which is in the French-born Nourian’s blood.
“I’m the third generation of pastry chefs,” she notes. Her greatgrandparents had a pastry shop in France, while her grandmother and then her parents owned a res- taurant as well.
Family pedigree aside, Nourian also brings 15 to 20 years of solid experience, including learning the tools of the restaurant trade from her parents, and paying her dues as a waitress.
Schooled at the prestigious Institut National de la Boulangerie-patisserie in Normandy, she studied the art of baking across the various regions of France, then went on to spend eight years in London, England, where she was chef of production in the kitchens of some of the city’s top restaurants.
Mchugh also brings some family expertise: his father owned a series of well-known Toronto haunts that included the legendary Penny Farthing Café in Yorkville, known in the 1950s and ’60s as one of the top jazz and blues venues in the city. McHugh and Nourian met in London. When Nourian’s boss sold the business, she was faced with a choice.
“(I thought), I could work as an executive chef for a big company. I was very interested in that. But then when I met Morgan, his background — his dad owned a café, he was one of the first people in this city to have a cool place in Toronto back in the ’50s. He always had a dream of his own café, so we connected on that idea.”
The couple moved to Toronto in 2008, bringing with them the dream of starting a new business together and a host of challenges to meet. The first was the need to raise money, because with limited personal savings, Nourian and McHugh were going to have to find financing elsewhere.
“We saved up money and had a lot of family help, from different people, but we couldn’t get a loan,” she says.
“We opened right on the economic crisis and there was no room for a first-time business like us”
Another challenge was the renovations needed to make their chosen location – a former photographer’s studio and flat on trendy Queen St. West that had essentially been neglected for 50 years – needed extensive renovations.
The café quickly became a success. For passersby the elegant little boutique – with its all-white interior and minimalist displays filled with brilliantly coloured, meticulously-crafted pastries – was an immediate source of interest.
In May 2011, Nadege opened a second location in midtown Toronto. Staff has swelled from three full-time employees to 25.