Colossus Bread in Belmont Shore will host a pop-up event with Sweden’s first three-Michelin star pastry chef, and Long Beach native, Cecilia Tolone on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
Tolone, who now lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden, is returning to her hometown to bake semlor, a traditional Swedish sweet bun flavored with cardamom, a sweet almond paste and freshly whipped cream.
“They have been eaten for Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French, Fettisdagen in Swedish) for centuries,” Tolone said in a statement. “They are now so popular in Sweden that the “semla season” stretches from the beginning of January to almost Easter.”
From 7 a.m. to noon, Tolone will be baking the semlor at Colossus Bread’s popular Second Street location. Pre-orders for boxes of four are available here. Orders will be cut off two days before the event, or when sold out.
Individual semlor will be available on a first come, first serve basis the day of.
This is the second year Colossus Bread will host Tolone, who has decades of baking experience. Currently, she works as a recipe developer and baker in Stockholm, Sweden.
In 2016, a 22-year-old Tolone moved to Sweden, where she worked her way up to pastry chef at Frantzén, ranked sixth on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and Sweden’s first and only three-Michelin star restaurant.
Before moving out of the country, Tolone worked in restaurants and bakeries in the Bay Area, including The French Laundry in Yountville.
Colossus Bread is located at 4716 Second Street.