Life is sweeter with doughnuts

At two in the morning, when most of the country is asleep, you can find Elysée Gilbert awake, under her kitchen light, making sometimes as many as 500 doughnuts in complete silence.

“I work better in silence. When no-one else is awake.” When Gilbert hit her late ‘20s, she started asking herself those questions about life and more specifically, what she wanted to do with hers. From math major at university, to successful salesperson at Massy, Gilbert knew she wanted more and set her sights on the mighty doughnut in 2017 and hasn’t looked back since. Gilbert is the owner of Doughneato Bakery and her doughnuts are popping up all over the country.

“Around 2017, I was working at Massy and I left because I wanted to explore new opportunities. I left without any real plan. Doughneato evolved and happened after I left my job. I was standing on my own two feet and asking myself what do I do with the rest of my life. What goals do I have because I’ve always had everything planned out. After primary school, I knew exactly what secondary school I wanted to go to. I went to Holy Name Prep and Holy Name Convent, and then after form six, I just knew it was university. But I didn’t really give any thought to what exactly what I wanted to do after school. I’m a math major, minor in statistics. So I’m a full math brain.”

After Gilbert finished university, she got a temporary position at Massy and eventually just moved from position to position. Even though she was doing well in the corporate world, she knew she wanted more. “By the time I was 25, I asked myself if this is what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I started to think what should I start exploring. And when I hit 27, I said okay, you need to take some sort of action now if you wait another year you may not have the courage to leave and stable employment is very comfortable. I just didn’t want to stay in a job that I knew I didn’t want to do for the rest of my life.”

Gilbert and her boyfriend, Stefan Muiznieks, started talking about the future and Gilbert says that Muiznieks was always interested in a food business. “We were talking about our future, and I knew he always wanted to open up some kind of food business and one day, he just said doughnuts. So I looked into it, did the necessary research and then Doughneato was born.”

As for the name itself, Gilbert admits that she wanted something truly unique. “We had a list and the discussion was going on for a few days. I knew wanted a name that you didn’t have to put the TT at the end. I wanted a name that didn’t exist anywhere. You’d be surprised how many doughnut businesses exist with the word doughnut in it. Everything we came up with wasn’t unique. And then Doughneato came up and that was it.”

Gilbert says she has learned a lot along the way and as a perfectionist, she just wants to offer the best doughnut experience for each and every one of her customers. “When I worked in sales, I learned that some sales people are money-oriented, which are most sales people. I was never that type of salesperson and I think that’s what has transferred into Doughneato. I am a customer service drive salesperson and I try to make Doughneato very customer service driven. Price points and figures don’t drive me. I make it more about the products and the experience one can have with my doughnuts.”

Apart from taking orders through the brand’s social media channels, Doughneato is also available at certain resellers such as Full Bloom Coffee in Woodbrook, and now offers over 20 flavours including cinnamon sugar, crème brûlée, pineapple coconut, coffee and cotton candy. And everything is customisable. Gilbert says she will work with you to create whatever you need for your event, special occasion or even if its just a box of doughnuts as a treat for yourself. “I think now with customisation, there are so many different ways to do doughnuts and that’s what I am trying to do with doughnuts. Everyone is accustomed to the regular flavours but there are so many things you can do with doughnuts. And that’s why I haven’t branched out into anything else as these is still so much to explore with doughnuts. Doughneato also does doughnut walls, themed doughnuts, combo boxes, doughnut pops and bouquets as well as letters and numbers.

“I actually made my first doughnut after I left Massy. Doughneato wasn’t the reason why I left. Doughneato happened after I left.” As for whether she likes doughnuts? “I like doughnuts. To say I was obsessed with doughnuts, no. This really just happened. Now, I eat them every day. And nothing beats a freshly fried doughnut out of the fryer.”