Let them eat cake! La Sable brings all the sweet stuff to Canberra Centre

Posted on 3 September, 2022

We can happily now attest that after a few last-minute delays, the glass display case of La Sable’s new Canberra Centre store is full to overflowing with an incredible array of French pastries and cakes.

You can’t miss it, it is front and centre just outside the supermarket.

And frankly, it’s going to be a big ask getting past row-upon-row of perfectly formed sweet treats (which look like they have jumped straight off a high-tea tray in Versailles) to make it to the gym downstairs.

Also, the waft of crumbly pies and sausage rolls promise new lunch brunch and afternoon tea options for hungry city workers.

Founder and head chef Benjamin Turner has had his hands full establishing an offshoot of his popular Mitchell flagship store in the city post-pandemic.

And not one to shy from a challenge, he will also be opening La Sable stores in Belconnen Mall and Gungahlin Town Centre in quick succession once the Canberra Centre is up and running.

Benjamin, who qualified in pastry cheffing in Canberra before working around the country—including a brief stint with Chocolate Queen Kirsten Tibballs—established La Sable more than seven years ago in a flagship store in Mitchell. The patisserie offers a brunch and lunch menu and also takes on orders for functions—pumping out entremets (that’s French for fancy layered cake) and platters of picturesque desserts for special occasions.

Expanding to other locations has been 18 months in the planning for Benjamin—and fraught with delays due to COVID and other happy interruptions like a new baby—but he is relieved to be opening for business any day now.

The Canberra Centre operation will stock the full range of French pastries, croissants, and Danishes—as well as the full range of pies, pasties, quiches and sausage rolls alongside the eye-wateringly beautiful desserts in a high-end fit-out. There will also be coffee—a special La Sable signature roast from Seven Miles—because how else are you going to regain focus from the sugar coma?

Benjamin puts his baked goods’ popularity down to imported French butter and a few other secret tweaks. But we can reveal his dad is a butcher, hence the meat pies are a cut above the usual.

“Everything we make from scratch, and the cakes are all created and designed from ideas I have at odd hours of the night or day!”

These include his tri-colour croissants which combine flavour combinations such as lemon meringue, raspberry and salted caramel, or his best-seller “Purple Envy” which contains vanilla bean and bourbon mousse, cinnamon caramelised apple and blueberry. It has to be seen to be believed.

He has gluten-free cakes on offer and some vegetarian savoury options.

Meanwhile if you are keen for a taste of everything, these mini trays of 20 treats cost $60 and guarantees to make you the office star should you grab some for morning tea.

With a team of 15 at the Mitchell store, Benjamin is keen to hire (whether you want a career in the pastry business or simply want to serve these perfect little flavour bombs over the counter).

He is also opening two more stores on the southside in what appears to be a La Sable takeover of the city. With his best-selling salted caramel Madagascan having drawn a steady stream of fans to Mitchell, the ease with which you will soon be able to pick up one of these bad boys anywhere in Canberra is making more than a few people quite excited.