A peek into Ma Mère Maison

In a recent, much debated red velvet cupcake adventure at Ma Mère Maison, we caught up with Lexi Bechet and her partner in confectionery crime, Diana Spicer, about their whirlwind climb to candy coated acclaim and why bacon nougat is the next best thing.

What’s Ma Mère Maison all about?

On arriving at Ma Mère Maison, a factory boutique store in the Salt Circle Arcade, we found Lexi Bechet with her hands in the batter, just finishing up a batch of wholesome goodies. Lexi and Diana were the first occupants in the arcade and 365 days later, their airy, industrial-looking kitchen has outlasted many little pop-ups and is creating quite a name for itself.

While most sweet toothed dreamers might hope of owning a quaint delicatessen-type shop catering for the public, Lexi and Diana decided to extend their reach, opting instead for wholesale with a mini boutique for peckish passers-by. The upside of this rather smart business move being that their famous assortment of nougat can be sampled at far lying delis, wine farms and farm stalls, like Peregrine and Pulp Kitchen and unique flavours can be created for specific clients. How does red wine and almond brittle sound? This culinary adventure was created specifically for Klein Constantia.

So where did it all begin?

Having studied art direction and design at Red & Yellow, Lexi’s future looked to be a creative one. She then completed a year at Silwood cooking school (which Lexi mentions should really only be done by serious culinary people), decided that she wasn’t quite ready to embrace life as a full-time chef and zooted off to Durbs to take on the advertising industry. But, in between falling in love and falling back out again, she also fell out of love with a career in advertising and instead headed back into the kitchen to make macaroons.

Along this bumpy road, a close connection imparted the secrets of making great nougat and so the Ma Mère story began. Lexi had only been back in Cape Town for one month when the retail space opposite the Old Biscuit Mill opened up and in an ironic twist of beautiful events, Lexi’s lettering and design skills have come full circle and brought her a whole lot of independence where designing the brand and packaging come into play.

When it comes to business and baking approaches, Lexi prefers to bake by feel whereas Diana’s methodical mind leans towards baking to exactness. Lexi runs with the creative side of things and Diana focuses her strengths on the numbers. A dynamic duo of complementary opposites.

‘A lot of French people get very upset’

Lexi and Diana puzzled over a name for their business for quite some time. They wanted something that hinted at nostalgia, both in ingredients and in preparation. Something edgy, yet classic. Timeless, yet old fashioned. And so, with French family roots in the mix, the phrase ‘la maison de ma mère’ (the house of my mother) came into play. This then morphed into ‘Ma Mère Maison’, for purely aesthetic reasons, which means they can get a bit of flack for their grammar from French-speaking punters.

Keen to try bacon nougat?

Ma Mère Maison’s nougat is rather extraordinary. Always seeking to push out the nougat boat, salted macadamia is their signature combo and some other classics include olive oil and vanilla bean, and pistachio and chocolate. On the more outlandish side, apple and pork crackling brittle was born out of a recent collaboration with Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants.

Oh and did we mention their bacon nougat? It’s certainly worth a try. One particularly outraged nougat aficionado later swallowed her words and came back for more.  They also make various nut brittles and keep apace of the macaroon movement, although Lexi says they can be rather tricky to whip up.

One thing is for sure, the eclectic and eccentric ways of Ma Mère Maison prove, once again, that opposites do indeed attract, in business, life and nougat.

To sample one of Lexi and Di’s deliciously sticky slabs, get hold of them via Ma Mère Maison, keep up with these French style confectioners on facebook and do make a habit out of frequenting Lexi’s freshly pressed blog, Lexibird.

A big thanks to Lexi and Di for welcoming us behind the scenes of their stunning little French confectionery.

Ma Mère Maison

Unit G3
Salt Circle Arcade
19 Kent Arcade
Salt River
Cape Town

021 447 1544