When Romina Rasmussen opened her small pastry shop, Les Madeleines, in December 2003, she landed back in town after some serious globe-trotting. Her work for AT&T took her from Hong Kong to Miami and locales in between. The common theme from her childhood and across her travels was a love of good food and good friends.
Romina, no stranger to bold moves, pivoted from her PR and sales careers to return to her Easy-Bake Oven roots with a touch more sophistication. Going on to train at the French Culinary Institute in New York, with a pit stop at Mesa Grill in New York and Azul in Miami, Romina came home and dove into opening the best little French pastry shop west of the Mississippi. She introduced Utah to French macarons long before they were plastered all over Instagram. We collectively fell in love with her Kouign Amann (the buttery, sweet treat from Brittany) and her, a darling of the press and TV. Then Romina closed Les Madeleines in December of 2022, almost exactly 19 years after it opened, to the collective gasp of fans and followers.
“I couldn’t do it anymore,” Romina explains. From pandemic stress, changing foot traffic and staffing challenges, her health was at the forefront. “I had some things to sort through. And so I decided, ‘Okay, I’m not done, but I have to be done with this. But there’s still things I want to do.’”
So the news went out, and people flocked to Les Madeleines to stock up. Romina closed the doors, took a breather, and flew to France. “I went to France, and I slept. That’s really all I did,” she laughs. “It was amazing because if I had stayed and kept the shop open, I wouldn’t have gotten to do that. It was April before it really hit me that my shop was gone.”
After working 90+ hour weeks for years, Romina could at last start to think about what she wanted life to look like. Then the bail bond office next door opened up and an idea that had been simmering for almost as long as Les Madeleines existed suddenly became possible. Romina called up her friends, Dwight and Derek Yee. They were early customers of the pastry shop. “We joked around about opening a bao shop for years,” she says. “Then I called and asked them, ‘Were you joking or was there any kernel of desire?’ because I want to do this!” And so, in the 11th hour, the trio decided to open a bao shop. They started testing recipes, hosting pop-ups, and remodeling the kitchen space, and Xiao Bao Bao was born.
The soft bao buns will be familiar, but the flavors are based on the nostalgic memories of childhood cooking for Dwight and Derek, “Their grandfather owned a restaurant here, and they would cook with their grandmother.” Romina’s extensive time living in Hong Kong and Taiwan also gave her distinct food memories. “It might not taste like the bao YOU remember; you are eating our memories,” she says. And with the bun providing the perfect pillowy blanket, seasonal flavors creep into the mix, like the Chicken Mole Bao, with a mole recipe from one of the employees from Puebla. Set up like a Hong Kong snack bar, everything is under $10 and can be eaten on-site or taken along to eat later.
Why start one business when you can start two?
Because every entrepreneur is a serial entrepreneur, Romina simultaneously started working on a chocolate and confection shop, Chez Nibs (named after her rescue cat, Nibs). Her reason for a chocolate shop and not a bakery? “I never want to get up to work at 4:00 in the morning ever again. That’s why Chez Nibs is open four days a week and why it opens at noon!”
But, a few Les Madeleines favorites still show up in the jewelry-case style display. Kouign Amann can never entirely go away. But the real gems in the case are the handmade bonbons, each crafted with care by Romina. You’ll find classic flavors prepared with the very best ingredients and non-traditional flavors from around the globe. “My six years spent in Asia were really a big deal. I was in my 20s. It was very formative,” Romina reminisces. “I discovered a lot of things that I really enjoyed. Food is the way that I share my experiences with other people. But when I came home, it was hard because nobody wanted to hear my stories. I spent six years living on the other side of the Earth, and no one cared. But they were interested when I started cooking food for them with some of those flavors.” Romina still tells those stories with her chocolate flavors, like mandarin, coffee cardamom, black sesame, and passion fruit.
Late in 2023, the sister shops held a soft opening and were in full swing in early 2024. “If you’re going to pivot, if you’re going to make a big switch, you have to be realistic about it,” she says, talking about the past year. “You have to understand that you’re starting over. I was honestly afraid. When I closed Les Madeleines, we had the lines around the block. I honestly didn’t think anyone would notice. And then, our first pop-up for Xiao Bao Bao, the same thing happened; there was a line around the block. We weren’t prepared for that. It was great to know that people wanted to know what I was doing or had enough faith in what I was doing that they wanted to come and try it.”
Both restaurants feel like an extension of Romina, her travels, her stories and her friendship with Derek and Dwight. “This is who I am. Take me or leave me. I’ve learned that you can’t always please everyone, and that’s okay. Do I really want to please everyone? No, I don’t,” she says. “The idea of perfection is a mathematical impossibility. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. So, I follow what I call the Goldilocks rule.
Just right. Just right is achievable. It’s attainable. It can look awfully close to perfect, but you can feel good about what you did rather than always feeling like you didn’t measure up. It’s a mind shift.” This is always true when you make a big change; not everyone will like it or understand it. “I’m going to do my absolute best,” Romina finishes. And her absolute best will keep us coming back.
Photos by Adam Finkle
Photos by Adam Finkle
If You Go
- Xiao Bao Bao
216 E. 500 South, SLC
xiaobaobaoslc.com
- Chez Nibs
212 E. 500 South, SLC
cheznibs.com
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