National Culinary Review

HISTORY
Family (Business) Man

That Jacob “Jack” Elmer, CEPC, AAC, loves his family goes without saying. And it just might have a lot to do with why he’s still working at a job he loves almost as much as his eight children and 13 grandchildren—not to mention his employees, whom he and his wife Iva consider their extended family.

was a good move for his career. “My love
for chocolate actually came into being in
Switzerland,” he says. “In 1972, I started my
own pastry shop, Heidi’s Swiss Pastries, in
Boring, Ore., a vacation-dining village, and I
was there for 15 years.”
becoming established as a quality trained
chef, I would advise someone to do his or
her homework on a possible location—you
know what they say about location, location,
location. Then think about the cost of starting
a new business. Do you have the funding?”

JaCiva’s Chocolates in Portland, Ore., which Elmer, who is 72 this month, began with Iva in December 1986, is where the family—at least, some of them—gather each day. “At one point, each of the children has helped us in our business,” Elmer says. “We have two daughters, Karen and Laura, helping us run the business presently. Karen is an executive pastry chef.

It was at Heidi’s that he met Iva, when he hired her to work behind the pastry counter. They were married in 1980, and six years later, sold Heidi’s and started their present business, JaCiva’s Bakery and Chocolatier, incorporating their first names—Jack and Iva.

Young people going into pastry must
remember that a considerable amount of
business knowledge goes into figuring
out the future of any profession, Elmer
says. “They need to think about where they
possibly will get jobs in any kind of business.
It’s changing all the time, and they must
learn to change with it. High-end jobs in
pastry are few and far between.”
“Iva and I just love being together. We are
together 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Elmer comes by such togetherness naturally.
He was born in the U.S. of Swiss parents
and was introduced to foodservice as a
young child, because, he says, “my whole
family was in the food business.” He has
baked since he was six, and received his
first KitchenAid mixer, a present from his
grandmother, when he was 9.

“When we started JaCiva’s, we wanted to give the city of Portland the best-quality products we could make and use all my European training to make them as authentic as possible,” Elmer says. “Our vision was not only to make quality products, but also to promote the family, hence our mission statement: A Quality Business with a Family Atmosphere.” Elmer joined ACF in 1978, and is a member of Chefs de Cuisine Society of Oregon. In addition to his ACF certified executive pastry chef credentials, he is a certified master baker through Retail Bakers of America and earned a certified master chocolatier designation from Retail Confectioners International.

Elmer is an advocate for the pastry profession, however, and encourages professionals and students alike to explore it. What keeps him on the job after all these years? “The incredible passion I have for working with pastries and chocolates, and seeing my children following in my footsteps,” he says. “Not my stroke or my cancer has kept me away from seeing that happen.

“My passion has always been working with my wife and my children. After that, it is working with and creating new pastries and chocolates.”

He has trained in both the U.S. and Europe, beginning with an apprenticeship in 1958 and moving on to attend the National Baking Center at Dunwoody Institute, Minneapolis, in late 1959. He started his own bakery in 1960, and then went to work in a high-end pastry shop from 1963 to 1967.

In late 1967, Elmer enrolled in the
Richemont Konditor School in Lucerne,
Switzerland, financing his education with
money earned as a back-up drummer for
entertainers that included Nat King Cole
and Bob Crosby, Bing Crosby’s brother. It
He has seen big changes since he began
in the pastry profession, the biggest of
which is that today there’s a demand for
more sophisticated pastry products with
an emphasis on quality ingredients. He
would advise those who are thinking of
going into business for themselves to
keep that in mind.

So when does such a successful pastry chef, happy in his work, retire? Elmer doesn’t have plans to do so anytime soon, although Iva’s opinion differs slightly.