Blue Hat Bakery

Bakery: Blue Hat Bakery at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts 
Address: 1505 W 2nd Ave #101, Vancouver BC
Website: https://www.picachef.com/blue-hat-bakery
Style: Canadian, European
Price: $$$

Blue Hat Bakery is the retail bakery offshoot of the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts and is, I believe, for the most part student-run. In a sense, this is the future of Vancouver bakeries and patisseries, so I not only like the concept, I'm happy to support this new generation of pastry chefs. Stepping inside, it looks like your typical higher-end bakery with an elegant, minimalist spread of cake slices, pastries, macarons and petite cakes. Personally, I found items were a little too expensive; this isn't entirely owing to the fact that it's a "teaching kitchen" - it's just too pricey for what it is. A $4 baked good should at least be a French pastry or anything that involves more skill.

I tried two items: the cinnamon bun ($4) looked pretty exciting with its rolled horn shape; however, I was disappointed that it wasn't as complex as I thought. The dough was dry and airy. A typical, old-school cinnamon bun without all the gooeyness of a sticky cinnamon filling and decadent icing. Instead, the cinnamon was too dry and grainy and I just couldn't get past that dough.

On the same note, the danish ($3.75) had a nice fresh fruit centre with strawberry, rhubarb and one blueberry which made it a bit moister than the cinnamon bun. However, this wasn't real danish dough! This was too bready and there was no buttery element; it was the kind of danish you'd find at a classic Canadian bakery or at a supermarket, not one you'd find at a better patisserie. No flakiness, no crunchy airiness. Still good in taste, but unfortunately, it just didn't make the grade.

Rating: **1/2