endure long lines to procure<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cEvery day until opening, almost two days before opening, our croissant kept collapsing,\u201d Armar recalls. The bakery\u2019s location next to the waterfront means dealing with high humidity, which can affect the dough. It took constant, small improvements for the bakery to snag the win, Armar says.<\/p>\n
The contest, held at the Clift Royal Sonesta in Union Square, saw 10 competitors vying for three prizes. Parachute won two \u2014 best original creation and best classic croissant \u2014 and Le Marais took home the People\u2019s Choice Award. (Bonjour Bakehouse earned a best original creation title.) The event was hosted by Frenchly, an arts and culture magazine; French Morning, an online media group for expats and Francophiles; and the French American Hospitality and Gastronomy Association. These groups narrowed down the pool of contestants through a year-long voting process. In addition to Parachute and Le Marais, the participants Sunday included Bonjour Bakehouse, Carousel Patisserie, East Bay Bakery, Sarmentine, and The French Spot.<\/p>\n
![\"Twelve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781012290_560_-S3840x5761-FPNG.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Parachute was a last-minute entrant, Armar says, invited to participate after another bakery had to drop out. On the morning of the event, he was scrambling to prep while also managing the usual bakery operations. He and his team arrived at the venue with just 10 minutes to spare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was nothing on our tables, just our boxes and our croissants, compared to other bakeries, where some of them had 20 to 25 items on their spread,\u201d Armar says, noting that he didn\u2019t even remember to bring a cutting board and had to cut his pastries on cake boxes. \u201cIt felt really daunting to be amongst all these super cool bakeries that have been in the Bay Area for so long, and such big names.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Armar was confident in Parachute\u2019s traditional croissant and didn\u2019t make many changes for the competition. But for the original creation category, he made a s\u2019mores-inspired croissant, featuring chocolate dough filled with chocolate ganache to mimic the slab in the campfire classic. He topped the pastry with house-made graham cracker crunchies and finished it with marshmallow infused with pine cones and spruce tips, both foraged for Parachute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He spent several days leading up to the competition doing intensive R&D, and the s\u2019mores croissant will go on the menu soon, for anyone to taste \u2014 and judge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781012291_161_-S3840x2561-FPNG.png\"\/)
Fresh pastries displayed at the Parachute Bakery opening Sept. 4. | Source: Morgan Ellis\/The Standard<\/p>\n
Before opening Parachute, Armar spent more than 10 years in fine-dining restaurants. But his initial venture in the culinary world involved helping out at his dad\u2019s bakery in India, where there were no Californian ingredients or French techniques.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parachute isn\u2019t slowing down. Armar is looking into expanding to at least one other location.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with hard work and dedication, anything and everything is achievable,\u201d Armar says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published Jun. 9, 2026at6:00am Not everyone can perform well under pressure, but Nasir Armar definitely can. And he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[22660,35067,2980,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-353101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bakeries","tag-eat-here","tag-ferry-building","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/-S3840x5761-FPNG.png\"\/)
Nasir Armar at Sunday\u2019s competition at the Clift Royal Sonesta. | Source: Courtesy Fiona Duong\/French Morning\/Frenchly<\/p>\n