Bakery Showcase grows with record numbers

Bakery Showcase was a sugar rush of the best kind.

The Baking Association of Canada’s (BAC’s) annual conference and trade show, held May 3-4 at the Toronto Congress Centre, saw record registration of more than 3,000 bakers and members of the industry gather for networking, product sampling and consultation with 200 exhibitors, demonstrations, education sessions and the first national Bakery Cup of Canada competition.

Florent Lehmann, owner of Le Duo Choc. patisserie in Candiac, Que., and assistant Félix Jeandot were the overall winners in the Bakery Cup competition, which was presented by BAC and organized by Alan Dumonceaux, a renowned competitive baker, expert in sourdough and lamination, coach and head of the BAC’s education committee.

A panel discussion on dessert trends moderated by Martin Barnett, executive director of BAC, featured Ryan Mallin, head chef at RMP Bakehouse at Pearl Morissette in Jordan, Ont., Hans Juarez, pastry chef at Quails’ Gate Winery in Kelowna, B.C., David Haman, professor at George Brown Polytechnic, and Joanne Yolles, a celebrated pastry chef at Toronto’s Scaramouche and other restaurants who now teaches private classes.

Mallin observed that Canadians are demanding whole wheat even in their indulgences, while Suarez said his customers are looking for more vegan options – a challenge that requires finding egg substitutes. Haman identified a shift away from haute pastry such as entremets toward desserts with substance. As he put it, “People want substance and grit as opposed to air and gelatin.”

In a starter guide to opening your bakery, Kimberly Houston and Scott Calvert of the Retail Bakers of America walked novice bakers through key points in their Business of Baking program. Houston and Calvert urged bakers to raise their prices as needed, or set them high from the start, to cover their costs. Calvert cautioned bakers to base prices on cost formulas and not competitors’ prices, which may have been set based on imperfect assumptions or on a whim.

Houston recommended starting with eight to 12 items and perfecting them and to “never open with a chocolate chip cookie because everyone has their own favourite version and you will never match that.”

The show featured demonstrations by Jamie Brown of Boeker Sourdough of Germany on evaluating the taste of sourdough, Reid McEachran of Ardent Mills on incorporating the company’s cocoa alternative into cakes, muffins and other baked products in order to lower cost of production, celebrity cake artist April Julien on tips for making hyper-realistic cakes that resemble everyday objects, Canadian Pizza Chef of the Year Bart Nadherny on how to make award-winning sourdough pizza and incorporate brioche dough into garlic knots to reduce product waste, and Julien Bruyer of Team Canada on variations of modern pain au chocolat, featuring new flavours, stencil print design, bicolour technique, shapes and scoring.

“This Showcase was even better than we expected, and we expected a good show,” said BAC executive director Martin Barnett. The feedback from our exhibitors and the attendees was extremely positive. The demonstrations, competition and panel discussions were extremely well managed and interesting. It was encouraging to see seats filled up.”

The next Bakery Showcase will take place April 25-26, 2027, in Vancouver.