Food Network Star To Open Jackson Heights Bakery

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS - A famed pastry chef is opening a bakery in Jackson Heights. Queens native Michael Mignano, featured on the Food Network shows "Sweet Genius" and "Fat Chef", will open the sweet shop in the beginning of March.

Farine Baking Company, located on the corner of 37th Avenue and 75th Street, will offer traditional French pastries like croissants, American desserts like whoopie pies and homemade Oreos and La Colombe coffee. An all-day menu will include avocado toast with smoked salmon and a spicy fried chicken sandwich, and Farine will serve a full brunch menu on weekends.

Mignano grew up in Astoria and went to high school in Jackson Heights. When he decided to leave his post as executive pastry chef at the Pierre Hotel on the Upper East Side and start a new bakery, Mignano said, he knew he wanted it to be in Queens. "I feel like I'm home again," he said.

Mignano is taking inspiration from the area's diversity and adding his own twist. The bakery will have a tandoori oven to make fresh naan dough for pizzas. Farine will also offer chicken pot pie samosas and homemade paan ice cream, inspired by the popular after-dinner treat among some south Asian communities.

"The beauty of Jackson Heights is it's just so diverse," Mignano said. "You can literally taste the world."

Farine will also offer a Mignano classic — his signature gourmet candy bar, which he dreamed up while working as executive pastry chef at the Four Seasons. The treat consists of layers of macadamia-cashew caramel, caramelized puffed rice and dark chocolate ganache. The whole thing is covered in dark chocolate and sprinkled with Hawaiian sea salt.

"The goal is to have fun. If you can't have fun with food, then I think you can't really be a chef," Mignano said.

For more information visit Farine Baking Company on Instagram.

(Lead image: Photo by Michael Mignano, used with permission)