Catherine Méra, a well-known pastry chef in Baie-Saint-Paul, set up shop in Old Quebec just a few weeks ago. Between the frenzy of Easter and the arrival of the beautiful season, the entrepreneur feels the pulse of her second adopted neighborhood. The duty met her in her new shop.
Many passers-by stroll through the streets of Old Quebec on this sunny day. Catherine Méra takes advantage of the after-dinner lull to revise for her Canadian citizenship exam. “There are so many things to know! she exclaims, smiling, a bit overwhelmed.
It must be said that Canada and Quebec, she knows them much more through their different terroirs and flavors. In 2012, the Frenchwoman crossed the ocean to experience a new adventure and quickly landed in the Charlevoix region. With her backpack – well stocked with a master’s degree in business management, a management position at the multinational food company Mars and training at the National School of Pastry of Yves Thuriès and Alain Ducasse -, she pushed the doors of Manoir Richelieu, Château Laurier and Groupe Germain.
Then, in 2019, came the call of the challenge. She decides to stand on her own two feet and open her pastry shop. The conditions are very modest, but the determination is there. “I had no money aside, I went into business with next to nothing. I knew I was in a niche market and I didn’t want to compromise on the quality of the products I wanted to offer. So I said to myself: “at worst, we try!” I had a small room inside the bakery. It happened little by little. I invested in a fridge, then in a coffee machine; I managed. »
Word of mouth did its job and foodies from Baie-Saint-Paul and surrounding areas came again and again. “The fact that I’m open all year round and not just for the tourist season, people are happy about that. I am a real neighborhood pastry shop, ”she told us a few days earlier on the phone.
Not just a chocolate cake
When they were children, Catherine Méra and her four brothers and sisters were entitled to a pastry once a week. It is undoubtedly there that the germ of what it has become took root. She remembers chocolate nuns and Black Forest cakes. “I was lucky enough to have a good food education and learn to cook at a very young age. My mother and my grandmother were good cooks and they always made everything homemade. »
This education, it is his turn to pass it on to his clientele. A part of the job she loves. “It’s not just a chocolate cake, illustrates Catherine Méra. There is a lot of work behind it. The same goes for the ingredients she uses, which all have a history and specificity that deserve attention, says the pastry chef. Sweet clover, sea buckthorn, haskap, Valrhona chocolate, to name just a few, are among the favorites she wants to highlight, especially by talking to the curious.
These exchanges are numerous. In front of the veritable works of art fashioned from sugar, fruit and chocolate, exclamations burst forth. Which makes the main concerned smile. “It’s something I have, this love for beautiful and good things. And it develops with the team around me. These are people who all have the same passion and we exchange ideas all the time. There is really work around taste, textures, design and packaging. It is a whole. »
In the shop with stone walls and modern furniture, cakes rub shoulders with macaroons. The shelves are filled with bars of grand cru chocolate, small caramels and jars of jam. At the bottom, essential pastry tools are on sale. However, the stars of the day, under this hot spring sun, are certainly the sorbets and gelatos, including the one with turrón which also recalls M’s childhood.me Mera.
Child’s play
All the desserts are produced at the workshop-boutique in Baie-Saint-Paul and transported in the evening in a refrigerated truck to Quebec City. “I’m feverish,” she admits candidly. We are in the infancy, there are lots of little things to adjust. I take it one day at a time, like when I opened in Charlevoix. She salutes her faithful team without whom things would have been quite different. “I have lots of projects, but without them, I wouldn’t move forward. It’s amazing how the people around me from the start are super creative and dedicated. This is what brings me the most gratitude. »
And for the rest, she takes advantage of the good echoes that spread and takes pleasure in meeting her customers. “There are some who knew us from Baie-Saint-Paul, others who have just discovered us, but they all like to stop here to have fun, underlines Catherine Méra. There is a slightly forbidden side, a little childish and playful with pastry. I like it ! And in any case, I want people from Quebec City to come here and reclaim their Old Quebec. »