Pink Palace to open bakery as part of 90th anniversary

The Pink Palace of the Pacific turns 90 in a week, and as part of its anniversary commemoration, the Royal Hawaiian resort will debut its retail bakery at the Coconut Lanai.

The Royal Hawaiian Bakery will be led by executive pastry chef Carolyn Portuondo, who plans to highlight local ingredients in sweet and savory pastries including Big Island honey macadamia nut sticky buns and a roasted pineapple coffee cake made with fruit from Koloa, Kauai.

The bakery will also feature Portuondo’s take on the kouign-amann, a flaky pastry made of layers of buttery dough. She says that while kouign-amann is “very traditional, actually really old-fashioned,” it has undergone a resurgence in popularity through San Francisco’s b. patisserie (now also in Waikiki). La Tour Bakery makes it, too.

Her version is made of Big Island honey, butter and white and brown sugars, coated with sugar and cinnamon, and baked in flower shapes. It has a crunchy exterior and soft interior.

Most hotel pastry teams create pastries and other sweets only for on-site restaurants or banquets. The Royal’s hotel bakery will be the first of its kind on the island, hotel officials say.

“We have a long-standing tradition of giving guests our delicious banana bread as an amenity. Our return guests have come to love and appreciate the banana bread in a big way,” said Dodi Preese, director of food and beverage.

To expand on that the bakery will allow guests “more of an opportunity to choose what they want, and to showcase the talent we have at the hotel bakery.”

Guests will redeem a card that allows them to fill a bag with pastries from among six to 12 choices, including the banana bread. There also will be gluten-free options, and other options for guests with allergies. For paying customers, prices will start at $2.50.

“My hope is to have a few higher- end pastries on display as well as cakes and minicakes,” Portuondo said.

One of those is likely to be the hotel’s signature pink haupia cake, offered in an individual serving size.

The bakery will accept custom orders, such as cakes for celebrations.

Customers will be able to grab and go, to either take their patisserie preference back to their rooms, to the beach, to auntie’s house for cousin’s baby’s luau, or simply to enjoy with a cup of the bakery’s coffee while sitting in a rocking chair on the Coconut Lanai.

“My main goal for the bakery is to continue what we do at the hotel, to try to use as many local products as we do in our food,” Portuondo said.

Preese added, “We didn’t open the bakery just to be the next bakery down the street, but to stay true to the Royal Hawaiian brand and provide interesting and unique items … to stay true to the nostalgia while using local products.”

The hotel is hiring for the retail operation of the bakery and also is looking for another baker to add to the existing pastry team.

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