Pastry Perfection
Matt Knio’s Journey from Cocoa to Cannelle
AT 7 O’CLOCK each evening, Matt Knio begins his magic. The delightful smell of warm bread and chocolate floats through the air as he and his team of chefs create croissants, macarons and cakes for Cannelle, his signature Metro Detroit pastry shops.
Come morning, eager customers file into Knio’s bakeries in Birmingham, Detroit and Ann Arbor—not to mention area farmers markets including Eastern Market—to peer intently into display cases, trying to choose among row upon row of tantalizing pastries. For Knio, this is a dream come true.
Growing up in Lebanon, Knio simply hoped for work that would lead to a better future. As a young man, he discovered an intriguing opportunity in Africa’s Ivory Coast to work at a cocoa bean plantation. He moved there without really knowing what to expect, but he quickly found that he loved the work. He gained experience growing cocoa beans, shelling and drying them, and shipping them to a company that made cocoa powder.
“It was farmer-to-manufacturer,” he says. “I fell in love with what I was doing, especially working hand-to-hand with the local farmers.”
After a few years, an unstable situation in the country forced Knio to look for a new direction.
“I knew I wanted something similar, something working with chocolate,” he says. “I was not someone who was thinking that I would be a chef one day, but life took me to baking.”
He moved to France and enrolled in Academie De Versailles, where he studied for five years, earning the title Master Chef. He worked under master pastry chef Claude Baraque and gained experience at several establishments in France, including the Ritz Hotel in Paris.
His future wife, Miriam, a Michigan native, was studying dentistry at the University of Detroit. He was fortunate to get a position at the Ritz Carlton in Dearborn, so they could be together.
After a year, Knio felt ready to start a business of his own, first purchasing an existing pastry shop in Southfield, then moving it to Birmingham in 2004. He quickly gained a loyal following of customers and was selling out of products every day. From a financial standpoint, though, he was still struggling to pay the rent.
Meanwhile, restaurants started approaching him about purchasing his pastries, so he made the decision to close the retail store, rented a kitchen and opened a small wholesale business, called Golden Wheat Bakehouse.
“That’s when I started seeing success,” he says. “I learned a million lessons. A good chef doesn’t necessarily mean a good businessman. I made corrections to make the business financially successful, and within three years, I was able to reopen the store in Birmingham, and then one in Detroit and Ann Arbor, and I’ll be opening one in Farmington soon.”
Part of what he learned is how to work efficiently. All of the baking is now done at his wholesale kitchen in Warren and the bread and pastries are delivered to the retail stores each morning while he continues to operate the wholesale business, supplying 42 customers in the Detroit area.
What makes Cannelle so special, according to Knio, is “technique, ingredients and love of what you’re doing. Everything you experience is actually made by us—not manufactured—it was made from the heart, from scratch until the moment you taste it. I’m in the kitchen seven days a week, working, helping and looking at how every single item is made to deliver the best to the customer.”
Knio and his team of bakers follow traditional French methods to make a variety of pastries and baked goods, including over 20 varieties of buttery croissants. If he had to choose a favorite, it would definitely be one that includes chocolate.
“Anything with chocolate, cocoa, I love the most. It reminds me of the Ivory Coast, working with the cocoa, the smell of the cocoa. I love every item on the menu with chocolate and cocoa,” he says.
After nearly 20 years in business, he finds that he is constantly learning new things.
“Baking is nonstop learning. Every day, you learn something new. You use the exact same items, the same temperature, humidity and yeast. Slight changes will change the whole thing. It doesn’t matter how much knowledge you have. You still learn new things.”
As he looks back at how far he’s come, he recognizes Detroit as the special place where it all happened and hopes to eventually have 10 stores in the area.
“Whenever I visit somewhere else, I always tell people that I’m in the best city in the world. My dreams came true in this city.”
Locations:
159 N. Eaton St., Birmingham 248-822-4072
45 W. Grand River, Detroit 313-694-9767
110 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor 734-519-1300
Coming soon—Farmington
ALSO AVAILABLE AT THESE LOCAL FARMERS MARKETS:
Eastern Market, Royal Oak Farmers Market, Farmington Farmers Market, Plymouth Farmers Market and Northville Farmers Market.
“This is important to me. It’s like opening a small booth for six or seven hours, people are already there, waiting for you. It’s an amazing experience,” he says.
