SHIRINI SARA
Biographies
Vida Malek founded Shirini Sara in Teheran on her return from some illuminating trips to Europe. Living upstairs the family house in the chic northern suburb of the city, Vida began her deluxe patisserie on the ground floor, thus becoming the first female patissière in Iran.
Guided by her mother Talat Alai, who is now an active 90 year old,
Vida Malek's business grew and she employed 25 people.
Moving diplomatically round roadblocks of male disapproval, Vida became known nationally for her exquisite and mouth-watering creations, and the imperial household was amongst Shirini Sara's prestigious customers
In a country where cookies were bought by the kilo, Shirini Sara favoured quality over quantity and charged for it. Her prices were high but customers flocked to buy, as it became a status symbol to serve her cookies, cream gateaux, and sumptuous wedding cakes
Due to political upheaval in Iran, the Maleks moved to Toronto in
1989, where they met with a totally different universe. Vida's fame was only recognized by a few Iranian families, so she started again from zero in a new Shirini Sara on Leslie Street.
20 years later Vanessa Malek, Vida's daughter- in-law enters the picture. Of Iranian/French extraction, 32-year-old Vanessa's French grandparents were themselves patissiers, and she was fascinated with
Shirini Sara's heritage and quality.
Taking over its marketing Vanessa has overseen a redesign of the packaging and a new website. With those in place she has already introduced Shirini Sara to some of the most prestigious stores in
Toronto including Pusateri’s and Whole Foods. And the future plans are big.
"The concept merges the Persian tradition of exquisite miniatures with a pared-down French aesthetic", says Vanessa.

She continues "Shirini Sara's cookies, gateaux and wedding cakes are not cloyingly sweet, seeking a balance for the ultimate of taste and pleasure, bursting into a celebration in your mouth. They are often gluten-free and are the ethereal pairing of rice and chickpea flours and sugar, for melt-in-the-mouth perfection."
With future expansion in mind, Vanessa Malek is working on a collection of Persian recipes to be published in 2011; and she intends to organize patisserie cookery classes to demystify the art of preparing the famous Shirini Sara cookies and gateaux.
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For further information or to arrange an interview call
Kim McKenzie Galvez
Galvez + associates
(416) 359-0380