Camille Dubois
Founder & Head Pastry Chef
Lyon trained. Colombo born. Obsessed with laminated dough.
Who We Are
Our Story
"Start with good butter. The rest is patience."
The Beginning
From Lyon,
From Lyon,
with love.
Camille Dubois grew up watching her grandmother make tarts in a small kitchen in the Rhône Valley. She learned two things there: that food made by hand tastes different, and that the act of making it is itself a form of care.
After training at the Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, Camille spent five years working in the kitchens of Paris and Bordeaux before the pull of home brought her back to Colombo. She returned with a suitcase full of recipes, three kilos of good butter, and a clear idea of what she wanted to build.
Maison Blanc opened in September 2019, in a white-walled shophouse on Rue du Faubourg. The croissants sold out on the first morning. They have sold out almost every morning since.
"Colombo has always had wonderful food. What it didn't have was stillness. A place to sit, eat something beautiful, and not be in a hurry."
Our
principles.
- Craft over convenience
- Every dough is fermented slowly. Every sauce is made to order. We do not use pre-mixes, frozen pastry, or shortcuts. This is not nostalgia — it is the only way we know.
- Local wherever possible
- Our eggs come from a small farm in Gampaha. Our coffee is roasted in Jaffna. Our herbs arrive from Nuwara Eliya every Thursday. France gave us the technique; Sri Lanka gives us the ingredients.
- A place to slow down
- We ask that you do not take calls at the tables. We do not have Wi-Fi. Our cups are not branded for Instagram. We are not against these things — we simply wanted to create a space that didn't need them.
- Honest pricing
- We charge what the ingredient, the time, and the skill cost. Nothing is priced for perception. We are transparent about this and will always explain our prices if asked.
- Seasonal menus
- Our café menu changes four times a year, following the seasons. Our pastry list changes more often — if something isn't at its best, we take it off. We'd rather offer less and mean it.
- A team worth belonging to
- We pay above minimum wage. We close on Mondays. We share recipes with our team rather than guarding them. Maison Blanc should be the best job our staff have ever had.
The team
behind the tarts.
Sanjay Perera
Head Baker
Self-taught sourdough baker. Joined us in 2020. Makes 40 loaves before 6 AM.
Théa Bernard
Café Manager
From Marseille, via Singapore. Manages the floor with quiet precision.
Dilini Abeywickrama
Junior Pastry Chef
Art school dropout. Joined our workshop programme in 2022. Now she teaches it.
Five years,
briefly.
- 2019
Maison Blanc opens on a Tuesday morning in Colombo 03. 12 croissants. Sold by noon. Camille makes 20 the next day.
- 2020
We close for 14 weeks. We spend the time perfecting our sourdough and training Sanjay. We reopen to a queue.
- 2021
The first croissant workshop sells out in 6 hours. We run three more that year, all full.
- 2022
Dilini joins as part of our apprenticeship programme. We expand the café space to accommodate a second seating area.
- 2023
Featured in Wallpaper* Travel Guide. The piece calls us 'the closest thing to a Paris café in South Asia.' We are embarrassed and proud in equal measure.
- 2024
Our 5th birthday. We give away 500 free croissants. We are out of butter by 8 AM.