Pastry chef Jazmin Jammal Ladkani was working in the production kitchen for events company The Big Group when Covid lockdowns hit Melbourne in 2020.

Amid significantly reduced hours, Jazmin took the uncertainty of it all as a sign it was her “now or never” moment to open her own patisserie.

Crème de la Crème started with Jazmin and her husband Samih Ladkani making mixed boxes of cakes from their home kitchen. They began selling celebration cakes, catering events, and popping up at markets around Melbourne – and last month they opened a retail store in a former florist and cafe in Spotswood.

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The kitchen door is wide open when Broadsheet visits the corner shop on Hudson Road, a block down from Stan’s Grill. Jazmin wants customers to watch the pastry process unfold and for it to feel as welcoming as if you were, she says, “entering your mum’s house”.

The pastries are uniform and glossy and the cabinet is lined with savoury options including a balsamic-glazed bruschetta danish, as well as sweeter options of tarts, brownies, golden cruffins, stuffed doughnuts and powdery almond croissants.

The team specialises in laminated pastries with a twist. There’s a spanakopita-inspired number filled with spinach and feta and the current monthly special, a red velvet croissant filled with raspberry gel and a vanilla cheesecake filling, and topped with cream, red velvet cake and a red velvet crumb.

But the signature is Crème de la Crème’s knafeh croissant – a play on the knafeh (an Arab dessert made by layering white brine cheese and shredded filo or kataifi pastry) recipe Samih’s family gave Jazmin when he proposed. A traditional croissant is filled with knafeh and infused with an orange blossom and rose water syrup and topped with pistachios, rose petals and orange blossom-infused cream.

The shop’s other standout is a riff on a traditional croissant, inspired by a croquembouche (a cone-shaped tower made with filled cream puffs held together with caramel). The King Julian, as the team has named it, is made by proofing three miniature croissants in a ring-shaped mould and baking them together. They’re then filled with vanilla crème diplomat and dipped in a caramel glaze.

Viennoiserie is famously time-consuming and requires chefs to have patience. But Jazmin says she loves the intricacy. “It’s such a long, labour-intensive process, but the end result is so satisfying.”

Creme de la Creme Patisserie
101 Hudsons Road, Spotswood
No phone

Hours:
Wed to Sat 7am–3pm or sold out
Sun 8am–2pm or sold out

@cdlcpatisserie