Park Avenue Bakery & Café
Punk Rock, Baking, And The World Stage
Know the story behind the success of Park Avenue Bakery & Cafe through this report by writer Jing Jamlang. Then let your mouth water with images of its famous treats, shot by Tabitha Fernan-Jamlang, and perfect for the season.
WORDS BY JING JAMLANG
IMAGES BY TABITHA FERNAN-JAMLANG
Punk rock and baking. Try putting those two in a sentence. Well, yeah, I just did, but my point is this: it’s like picturing Iron Man at Hogwarts, running around with Harry Potter and his friends. The two concepts are simply from different worlds. Yet, shortly after I made my way to the back of Park Avenue Bakery & Cafe — posters of The Ramones and Sid and Nancy on the wall to my left — I learn there is indeed an unlikely bond between the two. And it’s sitting behind a busy desk, a mountain of paperwork spread out all around one guy. He takes a moment to finish a message on his phone, looks up, smiles, and begins the story behind this unusual connection.
“I got into baking really early. I’m the youngest of five kids and my mom was baking ever since before I was born. That’s where I picked it up,” Buddy Trinidad explained. There’s a youthful enthusiasm to his expression, “I loved the smell of something coming out of the oven. It didn’t matter what it was, I just loved the smell of the house when she was baking. When she and my dad split up in 1980, she moved to the States. All of a sudden there was no more cakes at home. And around year two, when I was third or fourth year high school, I asked my dad for some money to buy some ingredients. I started making cookies, cheesecakes, and this and that; anything and everything that was in my mom’s cook book that I sort of remembered watching her make. And then it just stuck.”
ROOTS RADICAL
“But I really went to the States to pursue music.” He had a glint in his eye as he spoke of his decision to move to the United States as a 20-year-old. “I was in a band here and everything. We played punk rock.” That explained the choice of posters, I gathered. “I didn’t go to a culinary school. I went to a trade school that had a two- year professional baking course. The good thing about it was it only cost me $50 a semester. Of course, this was in the 1980’s, so my mom was pretty happy about that,” he laughed.
What started as simply the catalyst for his punk rock dreams, however, started taking a more central role as time passed. And as fate would have it, in 1998, while working in a San Francisco restaurant, almost a decade and-a-half after his move stateside, the opportunity to return to his homeland came knocking. He jumped on it. Two years later, his baby, Park Avenue Desserts, was born.
“A lot of people believe and think it’s Park Avenue, New York City. It’s okay if they want to believe that,” Buddy chuckles. But he quickly reveals, “Park Avenue is a street in Pasay near Libertad. That’s where I grew up.” And upon his return, for more than a decade, that’s where the desserts and pastries supplier operated from, quickly becoming an institution in providing a wide range of delights for varying establishments.
“Our goal really is [to be] custom-made. We could be servicing an Italian restaurant, a French restaurant, a Spanish restaurant, and a Pinoy restaurant which are all next to each other, and they won’t know that it’s all coming from the same place,” he explains. But as their reputation grew, operating simply as a commissary was leaving out a huge group of potential customers that wanted more access to their creations. That led to a move in 2011 to Paseo de Magallanes in Makati. It was an instant hit. Shortly after, another branch was opened in Rustan’s Makati. Now, four years after that branch opened up, Park Avenue is set to launch three more stores around Metro Manila.
“I enjoy creating things, trying to figure out what gift will outdo what I created from last year.”
CHRISTMAS ROCKS
On top of all the expansions, it’s a particularly busy time for Park Avenue and Buddy Trinidad. First, the Christmas season has kicked into high gear, and with it, the inevitable increase of demand for his widely popular brookies (brownie and cookie combination), macarons, cakes, and other pastries and treats. It’s a time of year that Buddy savors, and I’m along for the ride.
Chef Trinidad selects three from a dozen of his speciality mini cakes — his 12 days of Christmas. I dig into the Roca cake first to satisfy my soft spot for chocolate. Extremely rich, and thick, but not too sweet, it’s the perfect beginning. I follow it up with the delightful mix of crunch, cream and fresh mango. To finish off the trio, there’s the refreshing tanginess of lemon meringue. My only regret, not sampling the other nine cakes. “Eating sweets make you feel good, whether it’s candy, chocolate or cake. It’s seen as a reward,” he points out the logic behind the correlation between Christmas and his products. “I love Christmas, especially here [in the Philippines]. On August 31, when the clock hits midnight, the next song that will play on the radio is a Christmas song. August 31st!” he emphasizes with a laugh.
“I enjoy creating things, trying to figure out what gift will outdo what I created from last year,” Buddy reiterates. On top of that, he oversees the rebranding of Park Avenue from simply being a desserts and pastries shop, to Park Avenue Bakery and Cafe. He serves me a Spicy Chorizo Burger and Speck Pasta to show the establishment’s diversity. “All the food done here basically is food from our house. Food that my wife cooks, she’s a great cook,” he says. He goes on to reveal more of what’s to come. “I prefer really to be a neighborhood bakery, that’s why we changed the name. We’ll be renovating, and we’ll be doing a full line of breads. We’ll be opening for breakfast early, 7:00 a.m. We want to be the breakfast place to go to.”
BREAD BATTLES
And as if the expansions and Christmas weren’t enough, Buddy lets me in on a whole different side to his culinary passion — competition. As it turns out, Chef Trinidad is departing for France, as part of the Philippines’ delegation for the Mondial du Pain, the World Cup of Bread. The Philippines managed to be one of only 18 countries to qualify for the biennial competition, and it’s the nation’s first time to participate.
“In January of this year, we also competed for the Junior World Cup of pastry, in Italy, and that was also the first time the Philippines qualified,” he says proudly. “In 2015 January, it was also the first time the Philippines qualified and competed in the World Cup of pastry, the Coupe Du Monde de la Patisserie in Lyon, France; so, [that’s] a lot of firsts for the culinary world in the Philippines.” As the president of the Pastry Alliance of the Philippines, Buddy Trinidad plays a central role in these massive accomplishments. And he’s eager to share the benefits to as many as possible.
“Whenever we travel, whatever it is that we learn, we bring back and we share it by doing demos, by doing seminars,” his passion spilling out as he speaks. “Every two months, we’re either at Davao, CDO, Cebu, Baguio, all over the place. Basically it’s our way of giving back.” Having accumulated 13 years worth of knowledge and experience in the U.S., and almost two decades of running Park Avenue, he’s driven to pass on everything that he’s learned.
“In the end, what I’d really like to do is share what I know to anybody and everybody that wants to learn. We get trainees here all the time from different schools. The staff here as well, I train everyone. And I don’t want them to stay here forever. I encourage them, after five or seven years, if there’s an opportunity to work abroad, I help them. Everywhere, from Australia to the Maldives, I’ve made friends through judging and competing. I’ve helped a lot of guys get on boats. Go to Dubai, go to Singapore,” he trails off. “All I want from these guys is at some point, to give it back, to share everything they’ve learned as well. That’s my hope for them, that I get to infect them in that way.”
Along with his penchant to teach, his personal drive as a chef remains as strong as it always has. “Put a smile on people’s faces, that’s the end goal. That’s the only goal,” he says. “For me, that’s the best payment. If someone says, ‘The food was so good, I’m coming back.’ That’s it. That’s done. I’m done.”
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