By Spencer Sterritt

Quaint Nanaimo bakery featured Friday night on new Food Network show

Nov 2, 2017 | 8:06 PM

NANAIMO — “Pretty amazing, proud, excited and still a little shocked because it’s been such a whirlwind” is how a local bakery owner describes being on national TV.

Hailey Mannynvali and Paul Aboud, owners of the Hearthstone Aritsan Bakery, located in the Southgate Shopping Centre, are featured in the Friday, Nov. 3 episode of The Baker Sisters. It’s a Food Network show where two self-taught bakers travel North America visiting and trying various bakeries.

Mannynvali said she got the call from a show producer expressing interest in her store on her birthday earlier this year, after being open for a little more than a year.

“Needless to say, I jumped up and down for joy because that was the best birthday present ever,” she told NanaimoNewsNOW.

Roughly a month later, a film crew was in her kitchen and talking to her customers about their Nanaimo bars, which are the featured treat during their segment of the show.

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“It was crazy, like nothing I’d ever seen….they were so friendly and really helpful at making sure everything looked good.”

Nearly every one aspires to be on TV, but it’s a special dream of Mannynvali. “My parents and everyone had always said I was going to be on the Food Network one day, so it was quite a dream come true for all of us.”

The Hearthstone Artisan Bakery is included in the Nanaimo Bar Trail, a list of 39 of the best Nanaimo bars in town. Show producers told Mannynvali it was their social media engagement, presence on the trail list and look of their food which drew producers’ eyes.

“It was quite a shocker that of all these amazing bakeries around us, the new guy was selected,” she said.

The episode featuring the Hearthstone Artisan Bakery airs Friday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. on the Food Network.

spencer@nanaimonewnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit