Vincent Uso is the French guy behind Canele Alain, a pastry business in Richmond making the unique little cake from Bordeaux, the canele. Vincent does a great job describing what these special little treats are in the conversation, so I'll leave that to him. If you have never tried a canele, you absolutely must. They are crispy and caramelised on the outside with a chewy molten centre and they are delicious. You can jump on the Canele Alain website and order them right after you've read the conversation.
Hi Vincent. Your website has lots of great information on it for people to read, but maybe you could explain now what a canele is and its origins.
Of course. The canele is a very ancient pastry with humble beginnings. It used to be made by nuns in a convent in Bordeaux. It was made with the leftover ingredients the winemakers didn't use. They used egg whites in the winemaking process but discarded the yolks, and the canele were baked with the yolks thats why they are a bit yellow inside. The nuns made those pastries with sugar and flour they collected from split bags that came off the ships in port. They didn't have the same shape then that they have now. They gave those sweets to the poor people. Then they evolved and about 50 years ago people added refined ingredients like rum and vanilla. That all comes from the fact that Bordeaux which was a big international hub with all the connections to French colonies and so access to rum and vanilla. That's how the canele evolved and its origins in Bordeaux.
Has the name got anything to do with canelle (cinnamon)?
No, it actually comes from the word for grooves, cannelure, because the shape of the canele has grooves or ribs.
Are you from Bordeaux?
I was born in Pau in the south-west of France and most of my family and extended family were born in that part of France. My uncle, Alain, had three pastry shops in Bordeaux itself so we would go and visit him. We didn't live in Bordeaux but lived in a regional town south of Bordeaux, but in the area.
I was reading the story on your website of you as a young boy discovering canele at a family wedding and eating them all. I love the little illustrations on there too. They are very cute.
It was the wedding of my cousin and I was a very young boy so I don't really remember it but the story is that I just tried one and fell in love with the canele and I wouldnt even try any of the other pastries that my uncle would have prepared for my uncles wedding, I was just focussed on the canele and eating all of them.
I love them. There's something about them; they're chewy and textural but soft in the middle with that amazing flavour. What is it about them? They are quite unique.
They are unique. They are also uniquely baked. You have to prepare them in those copper moulds, so it is kind of crafty. And you're right, the texture is crunchy and chewy on the outside and sweet and soft and moist on the inside. They are quite unique, I agree.
I’m kind of a purist. I want to pay tribute to my uncle Alain. He passed away two years ago and that’s why I created the company and called it after him as a tribute. It all comes from him, and it is called Canele Alain for that reason. The original recipe was part of a canele club in Bordeaux, the Confrerie du Canele, which was about 20 chefs from Bordeaux who were so passionate about canele that they have this club that holds the perfect canele concept.
What was your journey from eating them at the wedding to now? Did your uncle show you how to make them?
After the wedding, I would ask my uncle to please send caneles. I had canele cravings all the time. When I was a teenager, around 15 years old, we moved to the other side of France, near Lyon, which is near Switzerland, so I asked my uncle to send parcels of caneles. He would send 80 caneles by express post, and we would put them in the fridge. He would say they should last maybe a month but in reality, they only lasted two days, so it was a good deal, but not good enough. So, I told my uncle it wasn't cutting it and would he teach me the recipe.
It's a very simple recipe with seven ingredients and ten steps and it is still on the fridge at my parents' home. The piece of paper is very old now, but it is where it all started. He gave me some moulds as well and I started to experiment, and it was quite hard to get the hang of it because the dough inside sticks to the mould very easily so you have to grease them with a special brush and a special liquid that is specially designed to enhance the caramelisation but at the same time makes it easy to remove them from the mould. I would bake them every fortnight for myself, my family and my friends.
When I moved to Australia, I always had this dream that I wanted to share this love of canele with people, but at the time I was really focussed on getting my visa so I could stay here. It took me 7 years to become a citizen. But I had it in my mind. I had my moulds and I would bake them for friends, but I never had time or energy to make it a business. But then Covid came, and everything stopped and all my hobbies and seeing my friends were all on hold and it was actually a perfect opportunity to realise my dream. I became a citizen at that time too and I had nothing else to do but be at home and start something. I worked on the website and all the drawings you see on the website are from my sisters boyfriend and it all took shape. It started very humbly. It is still very small but it is becoming more popular and people really like it and I am very pleased with it.
And it's getting bigger, you have a team now.
Yes it is still early days but I am getting good feedback. It was also a nice way to go through lockdown because I could bring some joy to people and pleasure. It was like a covid treat and when I delivered the canele, it kept me connected in a way.
Are you pure about the canele? Can you add other flavours? Is it always rum and vanilla or do people do variations?
I'm kind of a purist. I want to pay tribute to my uncle Alain. He passed away two years ago and that's why I created the company and called it after him as a tribute. It all comes from him, and it is called Canele Alain for that reason. The original recipe was part of a canel club in Bordeaux, the Confrerie du Canele, which was about 20 chefs from Bordeaux who were so passionate about canel that they have this club that holds the perfect canele concept.
So French!
I don't want to stray away from that and I want to keep sharing that original recipe with rum and vanilla. I had to adapt a little and find local ingredients. I could find French rum imported here and the vanilla comes from Madagascar, which is what is usually used by French pastry chefs, but the flour and the sugar is all Australian. I tried to make a local original version. But I am also innovative. I have the original recipe, but I also listen to the customers' needs. The Asian community in Australia is very big and one of my customers asked me about doing other flavours and he suggested pandan canele. I didn't even know what pandan was. I experimented for a few weeks tweaking it and finding out how to use the pandan leaves and get the right texture and balance of flavours. He was very happy with them and he serves them at his caf now.
That's great. Where can people buy them?
They can buy them from my website,www.canelealain.com, or I have partnered with cafes in the city, for example, Hikari which has opened in the CBD in Swanston Street just in front of the library. The Asian customer I was talking about is in Glen Waverley. It is one of my objectives now that everything has reopened, to partner with more cafes. I am confident we will have more in the future.
They would be beautiful at weddings.
Yes, and actually I am working on a project. Do you know about the pice monte? It is a dessert composition with tiered layers. Usually it is made with little balls of puff pastry but I would like to make a canel version. I am working on a nougatine recipe to create the tiers and I have three sizes of canele: big, medium and small and I'd like to play with those shapes to create a sort of croquembouche, canele piece montee version for weddings. One of my first clients in Melbourne was for a friend's wedding. She ordered 200 canele and nobody at the wedding knew what they were but they liked them. They were just on the table but I would like to have a go at creating a full composition.