DESSERT TRENDS: CLOSING NOTICE
In 2005 Dessert Trends Café opened as a retail space for the wildly successful cake studio Dessert Trends. Since then chef Donald Duong has been expanding the establishment's offerings beyond pastries and sweets. This little café in the Harbord Village has over a few years transformed itself into a full service restaurant. Chef Donald Duong is not only a master pastry chef but also a classically trained French chef. He is extremely knowledgeable in cuisines in the East as well. He was keen to cook and it was this appetite and familiarity of good food that drove our expansion. Our flavours are informed by the chef's years of experiences and immersions in different cultures of the world. Therefore our savoury and sweet offerings at the bistro are not considered wholly traditional; instead they are testaments to converging palettes and cuisines that reflect a city like ours. But what does provenance and pedigree matter anyway if what we offer is just simply delicious? We at the bistro want food with flavour and without pretence, a space that emphasizes community, and people to enjoy life and friendship through gastronomy. Our value of friendship and good food is what we believe to be the key to our success and we intend to keep that philosophy near our hearts and our stomachs through every endeavour we do.
Denise Asuncion - University of Toronto, Strand Newspaper Chef Duong's atmospheric concept stays true to the mellow aura of Harbord Street.