In the Kitchen

Warda Bouguettaya Bakes

A taste of Sunshine

The sun hasn’t yet painted the sky blue when Warda Bouguettaya arrives at 6am to bake the day’s pastries. That’s about as early as Bouguettaya wants to push it, especially when the thermometer dips below freezing.

“That’s why we don’t do bread,” she says with a smile. Metro Detroit’s biting winter is nothing like the climate in Oran, Algeria, the port city where Bouguettaya grew up. So the woman behind Warda Patisserie, freshly relocated in midtown Detroit, bakes the soothing sunshine into her pastries.

“In wintertime we try to focus on colorful vegetables and fruit to brighten the day. I can’t get the Mediterranean, but I’ll get the sunshine,” says Bouguettaya, who uses local ingredients when she can, often from Slow Food Organics in Ann Arbor and Tantre Farm in Chelsea.

“We offer the best pastries possible and with the best ingredients,” she says. “I do believe every place has its own ecosystem—I don’t want to make a torta that doesn’t reflect that ecosystem. You taste it in the end product.”

After starting at the Corktown Farmers Market in 2016, Bouguettaya moved her bakery into Trinosophes cafe, art and performance venue near Eastern Market, with her eye on one day having her own dedicated space. She was about to make that happen when the pandemic struck.

“We almost just closed,” says Bouguettaya, whose landlord allowed her to work on it rent-free until she was finally able to open in June 2021. Baking continued at Trinosophes through January, when the new kitchen was finally ready for Bouguettaya and her staff of six.

“We fell in love with the space. We always wanted to be in a neighborhood with foot traffic,” she says. “It will make things cheerful for us. We have natural light; it’s so important, even in the kitchen.”

Bouguettaya strives to create a good work/life balance for her staff. She makes certain employees also work the front of the house sometimes, to experience customer’s compliments. “What matters to us is to keep our employees happy and that we love what we do.”

Favorites include the top-seller quiche, made with Guernsey Farms Dairy products, braised leeks and goat cheese, but customers also clamor for tortas and tarts. Weekends are a chance to try new things with specials listed on social media. Customers can order ahead, a wise move during busy times. Bouguettaya’s personal favorite at Warda is the madeleine—a light, spongey French tea cake immortalized by writer Marcel Proust.

“When we do the madeleines, we whisk the butter with lemon zest. As it bakes, it puffs up,” she details, adding that she dips hers in coffee while her sister prefers orange juice.

“Right now we have a passion fruit version. It’s our sunshine. It’s to get us through winter,” says Bouguettaya, describing how she and her staff brush the passion fruit glaze onto the tiny cake while it’s still hot. “It creates this yellowish coating. It just brightens the day. We make something that brings light to life.”

“Life isn’t always beautiful—let’s eat something pretty.”