Glory Hole

When Glory Hole Doughnuts owner Ashley Jacot De Boinod started peddling wholesale doughnuts back in 2011, Toronto was mired in cupcake mania. Back then, Homer Simpson’s favourite snack was something you grabbed at a local food chain with your coffee. Doughnuts weren’t a glamorous pastry. And they certainly weren’t something you featured at weddings, let alone on perfectly tempting magazine covers. These days, the doughnut is the pastry du jour and Toronto has Ashley to thank for that, in part – she was one of Toronto’s first chefs to show that these deep-fried pucks could be way more than sprinkles and chocolate icing.

Ashley, a pastry chef by training, cut her chops at some of the city’s most prestigious restaurants, including Scaramouche and Buca, before opening her own shop, Glory Hole Doughnuts. "The decision to leave fine dinning and focus on my own projects was honestly a very tough one," admits Ashley.

It wasn’t just the company’s salacious name that caught people’s attention, but Ashley’s unusual flavour combos. Belt-busting numbers like a maple-bacon peanut butter doughnut topped with cream cheese frosting had customers going gaga for these confections. Some, like the lox sandwich, were flops. Others like the toast-and-butter doughnut (a stalwart offering at Gloryhole) stood the test of time. According to Ashley, it "combines the perfect textural components."