Alumni Sonia Haumonté

Sonia Haumonté was born to restaurateur parents. As a teen, she worked in the family business where she was taught that “washing glasses properly is as important as cooking itself”. Her passion for fine cooking and pastry making is therefore both instinctive and methodical. To pursue her passion, she majored in European languages in her native New Zealand and then moved to Paris in 2003, where she studied French Patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu Paris and apprenticed in a small boutique patisserie in Paris. “This was the best early learning experience to prepare myself for the competitive world of French pastry making, where you have to really fight to get the chance to work with the top Chefs in prestigious establishments.” This determination enabled her to then work at Michelin starred restaurants, including Laurent Champs Elysees and Le Pur at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme Palace Hotel, with Executive Pastry Chef Jean-Francois Foucher. “He was the best mentor I could have ever wished for and he remains an inspiration today. He taught me not just the skills and techniques of fine pastry, but respect for ingredients, the power of one’s imagination and the key to creative desserts that appeal to all the senses, from their visual beauty to the quality of taste and textures”. To hone her business skills, she completed an MBA in International Hospitality Management at one of Paris’s best schools, ESSEC-IMHI, while working for Disneyland Paris in Strategic Development of Products and Concepts for their food and beverage outlets in their parks and resorts.

She then returned to her native country and founded Vaniyé Patisserie in Parnell, one of Auckland’s most upmarket suburbs. Sonia has created desserts, cakes, and handcrafted chocolates for many exquisite events and continues to be a “food adventurist”, constantly exploring new ideas and pushing the boundaries of creativity, challenging conventions to offer her clients “new experiences that captivate the senses to take them on a culinary tour and open new horizons”. Her patisserie boutique has been awarded best French Patisserie/Bakery in New Zealand in 2019. It is designed in an elegant and minimalist contemporary style, seeks, as she puts it, “to bring the modern elegance and appeal of French Patisseries from Paris to New Zealand!”.


Blueberry Unbaked Cheese cake and Lemon bergamot curd Jordana cake.

Read more about Sonia Haumonte here >> https://www.vaniye.com/pages/our_story
Follow Vaniyé Patisserie here >> @vaniye_patisserie_official