A Vegan French Bakery Just Opened in Beverly Hills, California
California-based Chaumont Bakery and Café opened the doors of its new Chaumont Vegan, a spin-off bakery that will specialize in plant-based French pastries. Founded by Frederic Laski and Laila Abddaim, the bakery’s mission is centered around bringing traditional French pastries to people who follow a plant-based diet, because so much of traditional French baked goods such as croissants and pain suisse rarely can be found without dairy.
“There are so many restaurants in Los Angeles that offer vegan alternatives,” Laski told Veg News. “We noticed all of them offered great food in terms of savory options but when it came to the sweet side it was [mostly] cookies and brownies. So we thought, ‘Let’s give this [vegan bakery] a try.’”
Demand for vegan croissants
After the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced the couple to shutter Chaumont Street eatery a vegan-friendly, lunch concept catering to the city’s office workers Laski and Abddaim decided to convert the space into Chaumont Vegan due to a significant increase of patrons, and close friends, inquiring about vegan options at their original Chaumont Bakery and Cafe concept. “Throughout the last four years within our close circle, we’ve had a lot of friends who have gone vegan and a few who have been longtime vegans,” Laski said. “The ongoing joke became, ‘Hey, when are you going to make vegan croissants?’ And at first we thought, ‘Hey, there’s no way we can do that.’ But it almost became a sort of dare and one day we thought, ‘Let’s try it.’”