Our Story
Arpana Satyu, Pastry Chef and Martin Burge, Chef
Martin is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. He spent a majority of his career at Gotham Bar and Grill, before starting his own restaurant, Fresh. He went on to work at Vento, an Italian trattoria, where he met Arpana, a French Culinary Institute grad who was working at a sister restaurant, Fiamma. Arpana was a veteran of Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, and Tom Collichio’s original Craft Restaurant.
We developed a great working relationship instantly, and went on to become the in-house Executive Chef and Pastry Chef of the Metropolitan Opera House. We moved to Cumming, GA in 2007, and have been looking for good doughnuts ever since.
Arpana Satyu, Pastry Chef and Martin Burge, Chef
Martin is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. He spent a majority of his career at Gotham Bar and Grill, before starting his own restaurant, Fresh. He went on to work at Vento, an Italian trattoria, where he met Arpana, a French Culinary Institute grad who was working at a sister restaurant, Fiamma. Arpana was a veteran of Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, and Tom Collichio’s original Craft Restaurant.
We developed a great working relationship instantly, and went on to become the in-house Executive Chef and Pastry Chef of the Metropolitan Opera House. We moved to Cumming, GA in 2007, and have been looking for good doughnuts ever since.
What We Do
So what makes our doughnuts different from the other guys’?
It seems as though everyone else in the doughnut industry these days uses a bagged dry mix as the base of their dough. It’s a lot like buying a Betty Crocker mix at the grocery store--sure, it qualifies as “cake”, but only marginally. You can pretty it up all you want, but it’s still going to taste like a boxed cake mix.
In the past 20 years or so, we have experienced a great demise in the quality of doughnuts, in favor of efficiency.
The big guys commit the most egregious offense: They fry in a giant factory, then freeze the doughnuts, store them for weeks or months, then truck them out to satellite stores, who reheat, glaze, and decorate them. Have you ever wondered why their doughnuts don’t taste like the doughnuts you grew up with?
We like real doughnuts, so we start with real ingredients. It’s terribly inefficient, and not at all cost-effective, but it tastes a whole heck of a lot better. When you come to our shop in the mornings, you can see us boiling, peeling, and ricing the potatoes that soften the dough; chopping fresh granny smith apples for our fritters; cutting strawberries for the bismarcks; scraping juicy Tahitian vanilla beans for the Boston Cream custard; and cracking farm fresh eggs for the citrus curds. There’s no substitute for quality--you just have to work harder to make it happen.
We encourage you put our doughnuts up against any others you can get your hands on. We constantly taste our product with others, to ensure that we’re providing our customers with the best! (Yes, that means we have to eat a LOT of doughnuts. Tough job.)
The really amazing thing about our shop is that with the best doughnuts, we’ve attracted the best customers. Thanks to all of our new friends for supporting our small business. We really couldn’t do it without your help and encouragement!
It seems as though everyone else in the doughnut industry these days uses a bagged dry mix as the base of their dough. It’s a lot like buying a Betty Crocker mix at the grocery store--sure, it qualifies as “cake”, but only marginally. You can pretty it up all you want, but it’s still going to taste like a boxed cake mix.
In the past 20 years or so, we have experienced a great demise in the quality of doughnuts, in favor of efficiency.
The big guys commit the most egregious offense: They fry in a giant factory, then freeze the doughnuts, store them for weeks or months, then truck them out to satellite stores, who reheat, glaze, and decorate them. Have you ever wondered why their doughnuts don’t taste like the doughnuts you grew up with?
We like real doughnuts, so we start with real ingredients. It’s terribly inefficient, and not at all cost-effective, but it tastes a whole heck of a lot better. When you come to our shop in the mornings, you can see us boiling, peeling, and ricing the potatoes that soften the dough; chopping fresh granny smith apples for our fritters; cutting strawberries for the bismarcks; scraping juicy Tahitian vanilla beans for the Boston Cream custard; and cracking farm fresh eggs for the citrus curds. There’s no substitute for quality--you just have to work harder to make it happen.
We encourage you put our doughnuts up against any others you can get your hands on. We constantly taste our product with others, to ensure that we’re providing our customers with the best! (Yes, that means we have to eat a LOT of doughnuts. Tough job.)
The really amazing thing about our shop is that with the best doughnuts, we’ve attracted the best customers. Thanks to all of our new friends for supporting our small business. We really couldn’t do it without your help and encouragement!