Starting from a simple idea to open a small niche bakery, the Pantaleo family has gone above and beyond their initial vision, turning their idea into three flourishing businesses more than 20 years later. Operating as a family business, with Larry and Narda Pantaleo at the helm alongside their three children, Pinjarra Bakery and Patisserie has become a haven for the local community and tourists alike to stop by for great Australian food.

Narda Pantaleo and her husband Larry founded the bakery back in 1995.

“I think we were just passionate about offering the town some beautiful, delicious food,” Narda said.

“We started entering contests to make sure our products were of high quality before we started selling them.”

Their products include a vast array of great Australian delicacies, such as their classic and gourmet pies, with distinct Australian names and flavours. Their classic pies are some of their best sellers, with favourites including the plain beef mince, potato beef and chilli beef pies.

More of their best sellers and award-winning products include their vanilla slice and chocolate eclairs, with their vast array of sweet treats becoming customer favourites. They also provide fresh and healthy salads, sandwiches, rolls and wraps, along with homemade gelato and a small selection of breads.

Operating as a family business for 20 years has helped the Pinjarra Bakery and Patisserie become a constant favourite hotspot for locals. Narda explains that being a family company is just more personal.

“I know all my staff and I like to make it my place to know them all and to obviously know what is going on in the business,” she says.

“We are very much hands on and we are very passionate; we want to make sure everything is great for everyone.”

Their Italian heritage has influenced them to always be on the lookout for high-quality produce.

“We love food ourselves so we always like using beautiful, fresh ingredients and we always try to get our produce fresh from Western Australia,” Narda says.

In deciding to expand their initial Pinjarra Bakery and Patisserie to the spots in Waroona and Maddington, Narda explains that people often came into the store asking why they haven’t expanded to other areas as they would get a lot of support.

“We decided we would try it and see if it would work,” she says.

“It was a difficult process, particularly the first one, but once we got onto the third one it got easier as you go along. Hopefully we may be looking for a forth one as well.”

Pinjarra Bakery also recently took out a few awards at the Fine Foods Festival in Melbourne in September. Winning the best Footy Pie award with their Sydney Swans-themed pie, which had chicken wings displayed on top. Narda explains one of Pinjarra Bakery’s workers Darren, who has been working at the bakery for five years, is very passionate about the Sydney Swans AFL team, so they decided to do a Sydney Swans pie. But, not missing out on their home team, they created a Freemantle Dockers-themed pie for a local competition, which won as well.

With their 20th birthday having just been celebrated, it would seem the perfect opportunity for Pinjarra Bakery and Patisserie to expand.

“We are always trying new things, but it is quite a long process to get the right products and then push them,” Narda says.

“There will hopefully be more stores in the pipeline, but our main aim is for us to keep giving quality products.

“We like to make sure we get it right first before we start promoting it, so there is a bit of a process to that.”