sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bakery, Rugelach

Introduction

Customer: I’m getting . MARION KANE: Oh, rugelach! Customer: Rugelach with chocolate chips. MARION KANE: Yes. Customer: It’s my favourite. MARION KANE: You know it’s a Jewish – traditional Jewish cookie? Customer: Oh, I didn’t know about that. MARION KANE: Yeah. Where are you from? Customer: I’m from Japan. MARION KANE: You like rugelach? Customer: Yes I love rugelach and my husband as well. MARION KANE: Yes. And this is the best place to get them. Customer: Ah. I think so. This is the best place but because they don’t make this every day so when I see them I have to buy.

MARION KANE: The Harbord has been embraced by people in every corner of Toronto and beyond. The iconic Jewish bakery turns 70 this year but that doesn’t mean it’s stuck in the past. I’m Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®, and welcome to “Sittin’ In The Kitchen®”. Today I speak with Susan Wisniewski. She’s one of the owners of the Harbord Bakery, a place I’ve found can do no wrong especially when it comes to my favourites – their stellar caraway rye, their chewy twister and superb Florentine . Susan shares memories of growing up in the bakery and how they’ve kept up with the times while honouring traditions started by her parents decades ago.

Interview

MARION KANE: Susie, could you introduce yourself. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: My name is Susan Wisniewski. I’m the youngest of three children who have taken over the bakery. I’ve been here for many years. Probably at least 30, 35. I grew up on top of the bakery. Our family lived on top of the bakery. I’m mostly here. I call this my home. My - probably - first home. MARION KANE: Was it mostly a Jewish clientele back in the day? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: For sure there was. But we also had non-Jewish customers, very good customers, but it was a Jewish clientele. But now we have everybody. MARION KANE: Do you get people coming from the States for example? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Yeah, we do. We had people from Winnipeg. One family used to bring a suitcase and they used to say, “Fill it up with ,” and then they’d take it back. We’ve had people that come right off the plane, come directly here and said, “We have to come here before we go anywhere else.” When my son lived in , I sent hamantaschen which are for Purim, the Jewish holiday, to Israel and I still send to his in-laws who live in Israel. MARION KANE: The Harbord Bakery. It’s a large room with the bread on one side and then fridges with prepared food, chocolate, , . This wall is jam and above it are some photographs. Could you lead me through these pictures? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: There is my parents and her sisters who she brought to Canada. There are pictures of my mom. MARION KANE: There’s a very beautiful woman here with a fur stole or collar around her and she’s exquisitely beautiful. Who is that? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: That’s my mom Goldie. MARION KANE: Goldie? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Yep. She was the front person. My dad was the back person. They worked together all the years since they started the bakery. MARION KANE: Your mother came from ? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: She came here very poor. She came by herself when she was 16 years old. MARION KANE: Before the Holocaust, about 15 years before? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Yeah, something like that. And she brought over two sisters and the others perished in the Holocaust. She couldn’t bring over any more. MARION KANE: Were your grandparents involved in this bakery? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Both my grandparents perished in the Holocaust. MARION KANE: Both. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Yeah. So we grew up with no grandparents. Actually I was afraid of old people because I didn’t know what they were. MARION KANE: Really? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: I had a teacher at school who was old. I ran away from school. MARION KANE: How did your parents get into the bakery business? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: My father was a in Poland. He actually apprenticed in Poland and when he came to Canada he worked many . He went from baker to baker. Then he worked for Mr. Elishevitz who owned the Harbord Bakery at the time. One day, he wasn’t well and he asked my dad if he’d like to buy the bakery and he did that in 1945. And he made it into the bakery that it is right now. MARION KANE: When you say your father got into the Jewish business. What does that entail? What is Jewish baking to you? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Jewish bakery is rye , it’s , it’s nothings, it’s and things like that. You know, good baking and we still use many of the recipes that my father had. The rye breads, the sours, they’re all the same. We’ve added on new things to it. I don’t think my father would have ever heard of a whole- wheat challah but we do those and they’re very popular now. MARION KANE: Is your challah a big seller? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Yeah. Very big seller. We used to do it mostly just for Friday and we do many, many on Friday but during the week we also do quite a few . Challah’s become popular with everybody. You don’t have to be Jewish to eat challah. Most people make their French with challah. We do a raisin challah, a sweet challah, a regular challah, now we do a whole-wheat challah. MARION KANE: (laughs). Your father would be shocked. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: I don’t know. He was pretty modern. My father started many years ago doing granola before granola was popular. MARION KANE: Really? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: My brother Rafi found a little book in Coles I think and he brought it home to my dad and he said, “Dad, look at this recipe,” and he started to make granola. That’s many, many years ago. We’re still making that granola from the little Coles book. MARION KANE: Your stuff is incredibly delicious. I have tried quite a few things. It’s certainly my favourite place to buy Jewish bread and bagels and the rye is unequalled. Also the Florentines and the Eccles Cakes. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: This is amazing too. These are very popular. They’re called “nothings”. They’re a “ nothing” or called kichel in . Liz, can you pass me a nothing? MARION KANE: Oh, lucky me, I’m going to get to try a nothing. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: You’ve never tried a nothing? MARION KANE: No. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: It’s time to try a nothing. That’s an old-fashioned tea thing to have with tea or . They’re very popular. We used to them without sugar or with sugar. We mostly do them with sugar. MARION KANE: I’m eating a nothing. It doesn’t taste like nothing - it tastes delicious. It’s very light. Is that why it’s called a nothing? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Yeah, yeah. It’s an egg nothing. It’s very good with a coffee or tea. It’s really old-fashioned. MARION KANE: Oh, yeah. I love it. This nothing – it’s a sweet nothing. We’re going out the back past the cheese straws and some very good-looking cookies into the kitchen. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: One little extension of the kitchen where she does a lot of Jewish things here. She does for the weekends which is a chopped white fish. She’s going to do the . Grace, she’s not Jewish but she does a lot of the . MARION KANE: Are any of your or cooks Jewish? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Not now. I don’t think any of them are. MARION KANE: They probably used to be. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: They used to be. All the bakers used to be when I grew up it was but now it’s totally not. This is my sister Roz, and this is Marion. MARION KANE: Roz has a magazine and I’m looking at it with her. It’s called Fine Cooking and she’s opened it to a page with apple and she’s telling me how her father used to make it. ROSLYN KATZ: Yes, my father used to make it the same way. He would turn over the box and put a cloth on top and then stretch the dough and he would make the . It was amazing to watch him. He was a real baker, a real baker’s baker. I’m sorry I didn’t spend more time with him. MARION KANE: What do you feel he could have taught you that you didn’t learn? ROSLYN KATZ: Well, just the secrets. I love baking and I love cooking and I do quite a bit at home – but he had it in his mind, he didn’t need a book to create. If we were out of bread he could come down and, all of a sudden, we had bread. MARION KANE: So, he was the heart and soul of this bakery? ROSLYN KATZ: He was, in the back. My mother was in the front. MARION KANE: Yeah. Was she very sociable, your mother? ROSLYN KATZ: Extremely sociable, yes. And very smart. She knew in her mind how much to bake for that day. MARION KANE: And how to talk to customers? ROSLYN KATZ: She was very good. She remembered everyone. MARION KANE: Are you open seven days a week? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Yes, we are open seven days a week. MARION KANE: So, you’re married to this place? SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Yeah, I am married to this place. I never thought I would be. We used to shout at my mother and say, “Why are you working so much?” Then I feel that I’m probably doing the same. Is that true? ROSLYN KATZ: You are. My mother to sit here ‘til 11:00 at night and students would come in and talk to her and she’d give them advice. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: She loved that. ROSLYN KATZ: Yeah. She loved doing that. SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: It’s a very social place. Sometimes people ask me you know, to go out after work and I say “No, I’m finished. Really. I’ve talked all day. I’ve socialized. I’m happy. I don’t need to go out.” MARION KANE & SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: (laugh) SUSAN WISNIEWSKI: Each day is a joy in the bakery because we have such really wonderful customers and that’s part of the joy of it. Such appreciation by so many people and that’s how we keep going.

Conclusion

MARION KANE: That was my conversation with Susan Wisniewski and Roslyn Katz, owners of The Harbord Bakery. Their website is harborbakery.ca. I’m Marion Kane, Food Sleuth®. You can find more stories like this at marionkane.com and thank you for listening.