Forensic attention to detail is bakeryÕs recipe for success

A PhD in chemistry mightn’t seem to be necessary if you want to be a top-class chef, but there are occasions when it gives you a head start.When Fintan Hyland of the city-based Gourmet Tart Company was unhappy with the quality of the butter croissants being produced in his bakery – despite the fact that they were being made by French pastry chefs to a French recipe – he began a forensic campaign to discover where the fault lay.

“There were croissants everywhere,” says his wife and business partner Michelle.

Fintan placed them by windows and doors, on tables, near radiators, she recalls, so that he could measure the moisture content of each one. Eventually he discovered that the croissants were losing their flaky quality because there is more humidity in Ireland’s atmosphere than in France’s. So he tweaked the French recipe to take account of the Irish climate. The result is a perfect croissant that Fintan is happy with.

It’s that attention to detail that has made the Gourmet Tart Company one of the most successful bakeries in the West, since it was started nine years ago almost by accident by Fintan and Michelle.

There are three Gourmet Tart Company shops in the city, each recognisable due to its distinctive logo and creative window displays. In July the couple expanded the business further by opening a restaurant in Salthill, opposite the Catholic Church.

It was a brave move in these tough times – some might say mad – and entering the restaurant business has been a baptism of fire, says Michelle honestly.

“We know all about food; when it comes to service, we are learning.“It’s like starting the business from scratch, but the stakes are higher, because we have worked so hard to get to where we were before opening here,” she explains as she sits in the comfortable surrounds of Gourmet Tart restaurant in Salthill.

Still, it was something Fintan wanted to do and she was fully behind him. “He is a great worker and had a great vision and genuinely believes in it,” she says.

Michelle credits his commitment and drive as being the reason for their success to date, but there’s no doubt that her level-headed support has also been a major factor.

He had originally tried to set up a café in Galway after leaving college, she explains, but didn’t have the money to do so. In retrospect that was good, because they have built up so much experience by taking a different route.

When his restaurant dream didn’t work, he got a job in Shannon, working in chemistry. But, while he didn’t mind the science world, “he didn’t love it”, according to his wife. Baking and cooking were what Westmeath-born Fintan had loved since childhood, when he was given the free run of the family kitchen by his parents.

Friends would ask him to go and play football, and he regularly responded that he would . . . when he had finished making a flan. So, it was no surprise that when he was working in Shannon, Fintan began to bake. He baked in his domestic oven in Limerick every Friday evening, selling the resulting produce in Limerick’s Saturday morning market.

Michelle, a Galway native, who had met him in UCG, where she was studying law, was working in Galway back then. She’d take the bus down to Limerick every Friday evening to help him bring his creations to market and sell them.

They did that for a few months, as an experiment to see if it would work. It did. Fintan gave up his job; they got married and moved back to Galway.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.