Meeting with Henri
It's Friday and the whole team is busy behind the counter to finalize the preparation of the pastries that will be sold during the weekend. The fridges are slowly filling up with typical Italian desserts, cookies and cakes. But the institution is best known for its famous cannolis. Renowned everywhere in Montreal, this Sicilian dessert is prepared only on request at the back of the pastry shop to guarantee the best possible fresh product. It is Henri, co-owner with his wife Giussepina, who tells us their story.
It all started in 1954 when Henri's father-in-law opened his pastry shop in Little Italy. Giuseppina was therefore introduced to the world of pastry at a very young age and opened her business in 1988 on rue Jean-Talon Est: “We opened here 34 years ago,” he explained to us. Henri, he follows a completely different path which did not however predestine him to pastry: “Before working here, I ran bars in Longueuil for 22 years and in Montreal on Saint-Zotique. I also already had a reception hall in 1968 for about 4 years in Montreal North,” he tells us. It was his meeting with Guiseppina that led him here, and since he devoted himself completely to pastry, he specialized in making cannolis, their flagship product.
The entrepreneur explains part of the secret of their very famous cannolis: "It's the experience of the people who work here, like my wife who started working with her father in 1954. So she grew up in this environment" . In addition, the cannolis prepared at Alati follow the same original recipe from Giuseppina's father and it is Henri who takes care of them personally: "I learned to make cannolis with my father-in-law. The difference with the others is that here we do not prepare them in advance. We make them fresh, I fill them directly to order”. Here is the magic recipe for such delicious cannolis: experience, freshness and lots of love. You have to taste them to understand it, so what are you waiting for to treat yourself to a little treat at Alati?
