Tatin Bakehouse has quickly gained popularity with its inventive pastries, yet it remains surprisingly tucked away on Wyecroft Road — an area mainly dominated by auto dealerships, repair shops, and parts stores.
Despite its location, customers continue to flock in, carrying boxes brimming with both sweet and savoury treats. People come from across Oakville and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), some even rushing in just before closing time to snag their favourite pastries.
Tatin Bakehouse is the brainchild of Lili Linda, a former pastry chef at Oakville's now Michelin-starred Hexagon.
Named after Linda's daughter's nickname and the classic caramelized apple pastry, tarte Tatin, the bakery offers a menu of sweet and savoury French pastries, each infused with a unique twist of Southeast Asian ingredients and flavours inspired by Linda's Indonesian roots.
"There's a lot of potential in Asian ingredients that hasn't been used in the pastry scene, so I love that," Linda said.
The rice custard, for instance, is a nod to the traditional black glutinous rice dessert often made with coconut milk. At Tatin, Linda uses black rice as the base, then tops it with a rich brown sugar custard. The result is a perfectly balanced dessert, with a creamy, chewy texture and just the right amount of sweetness.
Another standout on the menu is the Beef Rendang Shepherd's Pie, a personal favourite of Linda's. This unique twist on the classic shepherd's pie features a rich, buttery crust encasing tender, caramelized beef brisket that's slow-cooked in a fragrant blend of spices and coconut milk. It's then mixed with a pickled chipotle onion (which Linda says cuts down the heaviness of the brisket).
The pie shell and brisket are then crowned with a generous layer of perfectly piped mashed potatoes and garlic slices that are lightly torched to achieve a golden, slightly crispy finish. The result is a harmonious balance of flavours and textures, offering an unforgettable dining experience.
There's also the crème brûlée croissant that's made with mangoes (or blood orange and grapefruit when mangoes are off season). With this pastry, Linda masters balancing the delicate sweetness of the crème brûlée with the fruit's citrus flavour while encompassing it all into a carefully crafted croissant shell.
Though Tatin Bakehouse was a decade in the making, opening a bakery wasn’t always Linda’s dream. Growing up in Indonesia, she initially aspired to work in fashion design, which was a career path that her parents (who owned a small clothing factory) didn’t support. In response, Linda pursued product design, but soon realized it wasn’t her true calling. She then discovered her passion for food.
Linda says she first got the idea of pursuing food as a career when she visited chef Joanne Chang's popular Flour Bakery and Cafe when living in Boston, USA with her husband. Inspired by the pastries, Linda took pastry-making courses. Eventually, Linda moved to Canada with her husband and worked at bakeries around the GTA, including Butter Avenue in Markham and a small cupcake shop in Oakville.
In 2017, she landed a position as pastry chef at the now highly praised Hexagon and was part of the starting team that helped launch the restaurant to success. Wanting to eventually open a food business of her own, Linda left her position at Hexagon in 2022. The next two years were spent learning the business behind running a bakery, while also running an online bi-weekly dessert box business of her own.
Linda also connected with former Hexagon cook, Sheila Wang to partner up in creating Tatin. They eventually found and renovated the space they have today, which was formerly an office that sold kitchen supplies. Inspired by Scandinavian and Japanese architecture, Linda put her design skills to use and converted the unit into something warm, airy and inviting for customers to use.
By December 2024, the Bakehouse's doors opened to the public and almost instantly became a sensation in the GTA. Linda says that since opening, Tatin has sold out its menu items almost every day, typically serving 200 customers on the weekends and 100 customers each weekday.
The success in selling out also comes with its downfalls, however. Linda says that while it's great that Tatin has gained attraction so quickly, she wishes some customers could be a littler kinder to the small business. According to the owner, there have been some criticisms from customers regarding the seating area and pastries being sold out before closing time.
“At the end of the day we are human beings. We are trying our best to make sure everyone is happy but also making sure that the product that we make exceeds expectations," she said. "We make everything from scratch. Everything is in-house.”
Despite the small criticism, Linda is grateful that she is able to run a place of her own, be creative and be part of Oakville's ever-evolving food scene.
“As a chef, what else could you ask for?” she said.
Tatin Bakehouse is located at 2345 Wyecroft Rd.