Novell Trix Fallar’s baking career started unexpectedly. Today, Novell is the co-owner of Tito Toronto, a Toronto baking company known for baked goods and baking classes. Long before that, though, the Culinary Management graduate was a student in the Philippines, standing in a kitchen without a plan.
“I was doing a course,” he explains, “and they were asking us to do something market-style, where you get surprised by what type of ingredients you going to be working with that day. Unfortunately, that day my chef had a substitute teacher take over, so they didn't have any ingredients available, just flour, salt, and yeast, which are the basic components of bread. So, I just started doing bread, even though I don't have any knowledge about doing bread.”
What started as improvisation quickly became something more.
“At the end of the day, it became successful,” he says, “and that's when I realized bread baking is my calling. After that, I focused more on bread and always tried to be placed into bread and pastry during internships.”
How Centennial College’s Culinary Management Program Helped Novell
Years later, Novell decided to continue his education in Canada. His search led him to Centennial College after seeing faculty work online.
“The power of internet led me to an understanding that there are a lot of competent professors in this school,” he says. “Then, I started searching their Instagram, their portfolio, and I got to see videos of some of their work.”
Novell enrolled in Centennial College’s Culinary Management program, but the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his classes. Still, he continued learning online.
“I was actually doing the recipes by joining Zoom meetings,” he says. “So, it was mostly about initiative, the attitude of the student.”
Even while learning remotely, Novell was able to build relationships and expand his learning beyond the classroom.
“I was still able to meet a lot of professors, because I was doing things outside of the school curriculum,” he explains. “I hadn’t even taken their courses, and yet I knew them. I tried to follow them on Instagram, and connect as early as possible.”
Beyond technical skills, he says Centennial helped prepare students for the realities of the culinary world.
“On top of the hands-on skills, there’s the attitude that they want you to have,” he says. “Going into this industry, beforehand, they always let you know that this industry is not a cakewalk.”
How a Centennial College Graduate Built Toronto Baking Company Tito Toronto
After graduation, Novell began working as a baker while thinking about what might come next. His baking career was started by a coincidence, and an ordinary day in downtown Toronto led to another coincidence, sparking his next idea.
“When I was still working as a baker,” he says, “I was just walking around downtown Toronto with my wife, who is also my business partner. We saw that there was a farmer’s market happening in a random part of town that we just stumbled upon. And we realized that it was such a beautiful day, such perfect weather, and it was filled with vendors, artisans, producers, farmers, bakers. I realized that it would be a perfect vehicle for us to join one of those markets.”
Opening a storefront immediately did not feel realistic, especially in Toronto’s expensive market.
“It's such a big leap if we decided to open up a retail venue,” he explains, “because anything that you open here, especially downtown, would need big, big capital. We were thinking of a way to start our own company, start our own branding and name, and the farmers market was our first go.”
Getting into those markets was competitive, but connections helped.
“We had a couple of former colleagues and former bosses that already participated in the farmer’s market,” he says. “But even with that, it's quite competitive to get into the farmer’s market. So, we tried to connect with the managers themselves, to bring them some samples. Then, in 2022, we got into our first two farmer’s markets here in downtown Toronto.”
That same year, Novell and his wife officially launched Tito Toronto, a baking company that now sells baked goods and offers baking classes in downtown Toronto.
“It’s a brand that I started together with my wife, Cindy,” he says. “Back in 2022, we were still working for a big bakery,” he says. “We used that time to gain experience and learn the business side so we’d be ready to start our own company.”
Part of that process involved refining products and identifying what would set them apart.
“We started doing panettone for Christmas season, because the bakery that we work at was also Italian,” he says. “We weren’t really happy with the product, so we started improving it and making it our own. We sold a lot of panettones that year, and I think that was our sign to pump up the production and start up our own company. We started to build Tito Toronto out of that.”
The Challenges and Rewards of Running a Toronto Baking Business
Running a business has come with challenges, especially when it comes to sourcing ingredients.
“Let's start with the challenging,” Novell says. “With our business model, we don't really use much conventional flour, commodity flour. We do a lot of local organic grains, so we can introduce and fuse it into our baking. It sets us apart and gives us that fingerprint identity in the baking community, since everyone else uses the same flour, uses the same sugar, uses the same everything.”
Finding those ingredients, though, is not always easy.
“We are a wheat growing country, and yet it's a little bit challenging to actually access these grains,” Novell explains. “For us, as much as possible, we try to connect directly from the farmers.”
Like many food entrepreneurs, profitability has also been a hurdle.
“On top of that, what’s commonly challenging in the restaurant and baking industry is just the razor-thin profit you'll be getting once you start your business,” he says.
Still, the rewards have made the leap worthwhile.
“When we actually started doing our own thing, we had our own schedule,” he says. “We had the liberty, the freedom to do whichever products that we wanted to sell to the farmers market.”
The business has also opened unexpected doors.
“We connected with a lot of people, and widened our network,” he says. “And we are able to do a lot more than just the farmer’s market now. We’re using our micro bakery as a place wherein we can actually teach. And I spoke at the Baking Association of Canada just this May, where we were able to connect with a lot more suppliers, and even with my previous professors back in college that I hadn’t met in real life because of COVID.”
How Centennial College Helped Launch Novell’s Baking Career
For Novell, many of those opportunities connect back to Centennial.
“The first job I really got after graduating from the college, I was actually referred to one by one of my professors,” he says. “He just sent me an email out of nowhere, saying there's a bakery position that pays this much, with a really good reputation. I think it's good for you as your first job in Toronto.”
That support didn’t stop after graduation.
“Whenever I’m asked for references,” Novell continues, “I always have a handful of contacts from the college that can actually help me get into the catering business, get into the teaching business, even apply for full-time work somewhere else. There’s perpetual help that they always give us.”
“It’s really just the constant aid that they actually give to you,” he continues. “Whenever you have problems, be business or technical, you can always reach out to them.”
Even now, he says the connection remains strong.
“Whenever we do pop-ups, my professors will show up,” he adds. “We also have a catering program, and we did a gig that was headed up by one of my chefs back in college.”
His words of Wisdom
Looking ahead, Novell hopes Tito Toronto continues to grow while staying true to the community-focused approach that helped build it.
“The end goal for everyone who works in the industry is to open up their own place,” he says. “So, right now, we have our own micro bakery kitchen, which we're renting at the back of a smaller cafe here in downtown Toronto. We found our calling, and want to do a smaller amount of retail, but still continue doing the farmer’s market, because we really connected a lot with people there. On top of that, we want to focus on doing a lot more schooling and teaching, because I think that's the best way for us to actually market our own brand.”
For current students hoping to follow a similar path, Novell says success starts with learning from others and building strong relationships.
“Support is always a big deal, be money-wise, mentally, or emotionally,” he says. “That's why we have our professors there in the college. They will give you the best support, the best aid, and will actually catapult you into your success, whether you decide to start a business, or work full-time.”
“For me, my blueprint is to start somewhere else first,” he says. “Plant your own roots, do a full-time job somewhere, learn as much as you can, maybe from their accounting, from their books, the recipes, the production cycle, which is very big. Learn as much as you can.”
“There really isn't any sign that will tell you, hey, it's time to start your business, because it's risky, just like anything else in life,” he says. “It's a big risk, but there's even bigger rewards. The market is always volatile. It always changes. Your customer always changes. Just start to actually start doing it, and along the way, you'll learn a lot of stuff.”
“Personal experience is the best teacher,” he says. “And if it's supported by professionals in the industry, that would be the key to a successful professional life in the baking industry.”
The Culinary Management program helped Novell build the technical skills, professional network, and confidence needed to start his own baking business.
“That’s why Centennial is really a great step,” Novell adds.
By Anthony Geremia