A lifelong passion has now turned into a storefront called "La Boulangerie de François" that is beloved by the community in Forest Hills, Queens.
"So, it started with a passion, and truly at the beginning it was a passion for pastry more than bread," said François Danielo, chef and owner. "I was baking and preparing pastry at home when I was 13, 14, 15 years old. And I loved it because I could make something out of simple ingredients...and that's still what my thrill is in baking."
Danielo's uncle is a bread baker, but he had some advice.
"He told me, François, if you want you can, I was very interested in working with him, you can apprentice with me, that's what I did when I was young," he said. "Then, I became an engineer, and I came to the U.S. and I worked for 10, 15 years as an engineer here in the U.S. and I went back in baking after that."
Danielo talked to his neighbors and community members about what they would want from a bakery in the area.
"We started with bread, and then quickly we're like, You know what? My first passion, as I say, is pastry. So I was like, I really want to do the pastry. I want to be a boulangerie patisserie. Boulangerie for the bread and patisserie for the little pastry," he said.
It took five years, but they finally added pastries to their product line.
"I really wanted to have the ability for the client to see to the process to experience and see the different steps of mixing baking and, and at the same time, I wanted my employees, the team to feel being part of the, of the, of the, of the overall process of, of being and seeing being rewarded," Danielo said. "I think there's some, some reward. It's almost like you're, um, a performer in a way. Being a performer when you perform, I think you, you, you, you get a little thrilled with your performance."
They have their own style when it comes to their almond croissant.
"The favorite part of the store, I think, is still the baguette and the croissant. Plain croissant and chocolate croissant. They love as well the almond croissant and that is a recipe from my uncle actually," Danielo said. "They really can see that we work hard at what we do and the hard work is rewarded by them coming I think."
Danielo is looking to open another location in Astoria soon. One thing to note, while Eyewitness News was shooting this segment, nearly every customer who walked in said it was the best bakery they had ever been to.
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