There was a time when in every small town
and city neighborhood you could enjoy the
aroma of fresh breads and pastries wafting
from the doors of local bakeries. While
those days may be gone, opportunities
remain for bakers and pastry chefs to find a
home among a bakery’s mixers and ovens.
A “culinary Olympics” medalist as both
a team member and an advisor at the
International Culinary Art Exhibition (IKA),
David Harris, executive pastry chef for Chef
John Folse & Company Bakery Division,
Gonzales, La., has worked for a number of
notable hotels and restaurants, including The
Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh. In his present
position, he’s responsible for the design,
development and quality of the bakery
division’s extensive product line, including
breads, cookies, breakfast pastries, desserts
such as individual red velvet cakes and
bread puddings, and other products supplied
to restaurants and foodservice outlets
throughout southern Louisiana.
the Rickards had shipped from France.
Their customers include Martha’s Vineyard
supermarkets, grocery stores, farmers
markets and restaurants that buy not only
breads but pastries, desserts and special-occasion cakes and other confections.
Recently, the Rickards received a retail
license, and began selling to the public at
the bakery and online.
In Vineyard Haven, Mass., on Martha’s
Vineyard, Gates and Kate Rickard are
chefs/owners of Rickard’s Bakery. They
met as baking and pastry-arts students at
Johnson & Wales University in Providence,
R.I. After they graduated (2002 and 2003),
they worked their way around Europe, got
married, started a family and, in 2008,
opened Rickard’s.
Location, location, location
Their ability to open a full-fledged bakery
was due, in part, to finding the right
location. That started when they discovered
local businesses were indeed interested
in selling and serving top-quality breads
and other baked goods. Finding a market
for their products allowed the Rickards
to make the decision to stay on Martha’s
Vineyard. They found a building, and
while Gates Rickard baked and delivered
products, Kate Rickard oversaw the design
and remodeling of the building to meet
their needs and the local codes.
David Guas, who spent 9½ years as
executive pastry chef for Passion Food
Hospitality’s four fine-dining venues in
Washington, D.C.—Acadiana, Ceiba, DC
Coast and TenPenh—knows all about
the importance of location. Since he left
the restaurant group in September 2007
he has been running Damgoodsweet
Consulting Group, McLean, Va., while
developing plans for his Bayou Bakery, a
retail business specializing in the sweets
of his native New Orleans. Earlier this
year, his space arrangement fell through,
forcing him back to square one.
Bruehwiler’s in Atlanta, an 8,000-square-
food bakery, was the first of two owned by
Christoph Bruehwiler, who says a larger
venue makes it possible to cross-train staff
for greater flexibility.
In the beginning, their only products were
the hand-shaped breads Gates Rickard
baked in a borrowed kitchen all through
the night. Today, the couple bakes in a
4,000-square-foot space that includes an
office and the area’s largest oven, which
“We did that in about eight weeks,” she
explains. Expecting their third child, she
now spends less time on the bakery floor
and more time juggling staff issues, a
Web site and the myriad tasks associated
with running a bakery, while her husband
handles production.
Planning Bayou Bakery has taught Guas
the importance of the right location.
His perfect spot, he believes, is in the
Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. “I
know that what I want to do needs to
be in the ’burbs—in a metro-accessible
area,” he says.
How a location is built out also is important.
Guas suggests that the design of the
bakery must begin with the menu. For
example, if you plan to fry doughnuts, or
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