About French Patisserie

The Toowong French Patisserie opened business 23 years ago in June 1984 in the same shopping village that it is currently located. Our Clayfield French Patisserie opened 21 years ago in 1985. Since that time The French Patisseries have been supplying Brisbane with authentic French style pastry products that are crafted to a standard, not to a price.

Our patisserie has become a part of Brisbane folklore having been included in award winning author Nick Earls’ novel, Zigzag.

Our specialty is French pastry. The difference between an authentic French pastry and just the usual Aussie attempt is:

- we use butter, never margarine;
- we fold the butter into the dough, we do not mix it in;
- every product is handmade, therefore there is variation as a result; and
- our croissant is not taken out of a box, we hand make every one of them.

As well as pastries we create some of the best tasting and looking gateaux (cake) that can be made. Each gateaux is handmade by our pastrychef in the traditional manner, many with small amounts of alcohol to add a distinct French signature. We use genoise sponge which differs from ordinary sponge cake in that the eggs are beaten whole. For most of the gateaux there are usually three layers of sponge and buttercream. The cakes are iced in real buttercream, ganache, cream cheese frosting or plastic icing. Our gateaux are decorated in a variety of way with lashing of buttercream, waves of real chocolate, almond flakes, chocolate buttons, silver cachou etc.

The French Patisserie creates birthday, engagement, anniversary, wedding and celebration cakes made to order.

There are products that our customers drive across town for, some which are exclusive to our French Patisseries. They include;

• croissant (plain, almond, pain au chocolat and almond & custard)
• mille fieulle (a generous sized vanilla slice}
• cheese strudels
• chocolate and coffee éclairs / nuns
• fruit flans
• mars bar and tim tam cheesecakes
• croquembouche
• buche de noel (a traditional French Christmas cake)

The French Patisserie’s bakery is manned by five qualified Pastrychefs who each have a dedication to quality and innovation. Working under the direction of our Head Pastrychef, Justin Gravestein this team operates a round the clock kitchen to ensure that our customers receive only very fresh products, baked just hours before delivery. All our products are freshly made therefore we require 48 hours notice for our pastry lines to ensure they are available. They are assisted by two trainee pastrychefs.

Our business has operated a wholesale business for many years and has a dedicated temperature-controlled delivery van for this purpose. We are capable of being able to supply our wholesale clients with consistent high quality products, on time every day and within budget. The French Patisserie is able to make daily deliveries. Our current practice is to close on Good Friday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.