When Safiya Burton was younger, she would bake instead of doing her homework. Her book bag would be filled with pastries instead of books, which she would sell to classmates. Now, come January, she is set to open her first pastry and dessert spot, Pastry Passions, at Sovereign.

Even though schoolwork was pushed aside for her love of pastries, Burton has spent most of her life in the investment world. She began as a personal financial planner with American Express Financial Advisors before being recruited by Merrill Lynch in Miami. Back in Jamaica, she took on financial spots as manager of Portfolio Administration at Mellon Financial Corporation, and assistant vice president of Regional Marketing & Distribution at First Global Financial Services. But in January 2007, she had had enough.

“I was very frustrated with the availability and quality of pastries in Jamaica,” Burton tells Thursday Food inside what will be her first patisserie location, “I knew there were so many more options out there, but there just weren’t here.”

Heading up to New York, Burton enrolled in the prestigious French Culinary Institute, for a six-month Classic Pastry Arts course. Following that she interned at Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan. When she returned to Jamaica in October of this year, she set out on a course to open her own place by Christmas – Pastry Passions.

“We’re going to have everything sweet, and a little savoury,” she says. However, although the menu will cater to the Jamaican palate and include Jamaican baked goods like sweet potato pudding, and plantain tarts, it is a classic French influence that will dictate the tone. Profiteroles, patachou, various types of macaroons, and sweet and savoury crêpes. Other items will include Jamaican patties, along with their own ice cream, and cheesecake.

There will also be a chocolatier, ‘Chocolates By Safiya’, with handmade chocolates, and a menu that includes dark, white and milk monogrammed chocolates and two- and six-piece truffle box-sets. “All of the all-natural ingredients will be imported to ensure that the best quality cocoa is used,” she says, from France, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, stressing that everything will also be made from scratch. “No cake mixes, pie fillings or anything pre-made,” she says.

Ultimately she hopes to introduce Jamaicans to a new level of pastries, to something new. “I am obsessed with taste and texture,” she says, “my boyfriend will tell me to stop touching other people’s breads,” she says with a laugh. But there is no “Susie Homemaker” here. In fact, don’t take the ‘sweet’ exterior for innocence. Here is one determined, headstrong pastry maker. So much so that she plans to have six locations open in Jamaica by this time next year, including stand-alone locations. In the next five years, she plans to take Pastry Passions through the Caribbean and up to Miami and New York. Funded predominantly by her own personal funds, Burton also has two co-directors, boyfriend Andre Chisholm, and father Erwin Burton, who is deputy CEO, GraceKennedy Limited and CEO GK Foods.

Although the opening of the store has been somewhat delayed, Burton explains that some of her equipment are being detained at the dock; however, she is also still continuing to train her staff of 13. While most of her staff come from UTech and other local institutions, Burton explains they must complete the Pastry Passions technical skills training programme, as although the training is fairly demanding, they do not cover certain specialties like chocolate, ice cream and crêpe-making.