Sweet disposition | News, Sports, Jobs

May 2024 · 7 minute read

Life is sweet for Madame Donut of Wailuku’s Donut Dynamite. Behind the counter at Donut Dynamite, there’s an eclectic and tantalizing mix of flavors, ranging from Maui vanilla bean and Molokai sweet potato to bacon maple and cinnamon toast crunch. Anna Kim Photography photo

Looking back on it now, Madame Donut can’t believe she ever thought cooking was a chore. “Growing up, it was something I had to do,” she explained. “Now, it’s not only something I love to do — it’s also who I am.”

When she was 12 years old, Madame Donut (which is her registered legal name) became the designated chef on her family’s homestead in Nueva Vizcaya, a mountainous province of the Philippines. She may have had a knack for cooking, but at the time, Madame Donut had no interest in a culinary career. Instead, at the age of 18, she landed a job singing on a cruise ship — a gig that eventually brought her to the United States. While on a stopover in New York City, she became enamored with the Big Apple. “I fell in love with the city,” she said. “So I decided to stay.”

A few years later, Madame Donut packed her things and moved west to attend San Francisco State University, where she planned to earn a degree in kinesiology and exercise science. But things didn’t go according to plan. Madame Donut says everything changed when she bought a birthday gift for her roommate, a chef. “He wanted a black KitchenAid mixer,” she recalled. “While I was shopping for him, I found an orange mixer — it was the first year KitchenAid had them in color — and I loved the color. I had no idea how to use it, but I bought it for myself anyway.”

For a stretch of time, the orange mixer sat collecting dust in her apartment kitchen. But one summer afternoon, Madame Donut decided to make use of her impulse purchase, so she borrowed a friend’s copy of Julia Child’s “Baking with Julia.” “I wanted to make croissants,” she said. “My friend tried to convince me to ease into it and start off with cookies or brownies, but I’d already made up my mind.”

As she pulled the croissants out of the oven that day, Madame Donut says something clicked. “It came rushing back, how much I loved cooking when I was younger,” she said. “It seemed like a chore back then, but in that moment, I realized how much I really enjoyed it.” That’s when she made a career pivot. In 2005, she enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and studied to become a pastry chef. “I love the science of baking,” she said. “It requires the right touch and you can’t fake it — if there’s a missing ingredient, you can’t go on.”

Anna Kim Photography photo

After graduation, Madame Donut started working at one of San Francisco’s top restaurants, where she eventually introduced a lifelong passion to the dessert menu: gourmet doughnuts. “They were a hit,” she said. “And I knew they would be.”

To say that she loves doughnuts would be an understatement. Madame Donut’s affinity for the sweet treats began at an early age: She has fond memories of sharing them with her sister and her first job was at her hometown Dunkin’ Donuts. “Yes, I’ve come full circle since then,” she laughed.

In 2011, Madame Donut and her husband, Frank Parada, a savory chef, moved to Maui. “Maui hugged me when I arrived,” she said. “And I hugged it right back.” Two years later, while working as a pastry chef in Wailea, she received a phone call from a friend who had spotted a newly posted ad on Craigslist: a mobile doughnut shop was for sale. “All along, I’d wanted to start my own doughnut business,” she said. “It was the right time and the right opportunity.”

Not long after, Madame Donut was serving handmade artisanal doughnuts through the window of the newly christened Donut Dynamite food truck at the Maui Swap Meet and Kihei Fourth Friday Town Party. It wasn’t long before people started to catch on and the doughnuts quickly became a sought-after commodity.

“I’m determined to change people’s minds about doughnuts. Some people think of it as the quintessential evil — it’s sweet, it’s fried, it’s caloric,” she said. “But I always say, if you’re going to cheat on your diet, do it right and treat yourself to something luxurious . . . luxury shouldn’t just be on special occasions.”

You don’t have to be a foodie to see that these are not your run-of-the-mill doughnuts — to the contrary, each is a work of art. For starters, the doughnuts are made from scratch, along with all of the toppings (with the exception of bacon, but Madame Donut says she’s open to the idea of curing her own someday).

“I don’t cut corners,” she said. “A customer came in once and asked for sprinkles, which we didn’t have at the time. So, I spent that evening making my own sprinkles.”

Madame Donut uses more than 17 styles of brioche (a light, sweet yeast bread) and the ingredients are always fresh and locally sourced whenever possible. The bread-making process is painstakingly precise and slow: It takes between six to eight hours for the brioche dough to ferment. It’s worth the wait, though; the slow fermentation process not only makes the doughnut taste better, but it also makes the gluten more digestible. “There’s a lot of love and care that goes into making them,” she said. “Every artist has a chosen canvas — mine is a doughnut.”

And the world is starting to take notice of her artistry. In August, she and Parada competed against “donut masters” from across North America on the Cooking Channel’s “Donut Showdown” and were crowned the winners. The couple invested the $10,000 prize money in the Donut Dynamite bakery, which opened its doors in September in Wailuku. The bakery, which is every bit as colorful as its owner, has an eclectic and tantalizing mix of flavors, ranging from Maui vanilla bean and Molokai sweet potato to bacon maple and cinnamon toast crunch. “We always try to go outside of the box,” she said. “No pun intended.”

Since the storefront location opened, Madame Donut hasn’t stopped moving. At any given moment, you’ll find her hard at work in the bakery’s kitchen, mixing dough, making toppings or coming up with new recipes. “There’s been a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of quick naps,” she said. “I’m tired, but I’m happy.”

You’ll find her bright orange KitchenAid mixer perched on a shelf there, too. It’s a visual reminder of how far she’s come — and how much further she will go. “It’s been a magical and weird experience,” she said. “I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

To learn more about Donut Dynamite, visit www.donutdynamite.com.

* Sarah Ruppenthal is a Maui-based writer. Do you have an interesting neighbor? Tell us about them at missruppenthal@gmail.com. Neighbors and “The State of Aloha,” written by Ben Lowenthal, alternate Fridays.

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