Baking; a family affair...
I inherited the keen appreciation for baking from my family. Our history as a baking family began more than a century ago, in the late 20th century in Holland. Early on my great-uncle 'Jaap' Schat, who was still baking into his 80's, demonstrated his extensive decades-long knowledge to me while working with him and the family. Learning the craft and business of baking directly from such dedicated, passionate and proud bakers shaped the way I viewed baking and inspired me to learn the business. Along with this practical experience in baking I also utilize scientific method and research fundamentals learned while completing my university degree when approaching bakery challenges.
To help further my education I gained employment with an apprenticeship in Amsterdam in 1981 through 1984 at a well-known patisserie where I began at the base and earned my way through the different stations until I reached journeyman status. This also impressed on me the value for the industry in the fundamentals of the trade. Realizing I needed to expose myself to greater challenges and having heard from USA-based friends of a food and baking renaissance taking place in especially northern California, with leaders like Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, I moved back from Holland to San Francisco in the mid-1980's to seek opportunities there.
Staying faithful to its reputation as the land of opportunity, the United States and San Francisco in particular, offered me multiple means to live out my career. Later I was accepted to the Baking Team USA to compete in the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie which tested mostly, the bread baking fundamentals and teamwork. We went on to win the first ever USA gold which encouraged me to continue supporting baker's mastery of the craft along with the business. Eventually I became partner and co-president at Il Fornaio America successfully selling our wholesale bakery to Aryzta in 2016 where I became vice-president of culinary innovation for the La Brea Bakeries.
I continue practicing the baking business and enjoy customers challenging me to hone my knowledge and skills around continuous improvement through an ever evolving, demanding, innovative, and challenging consumer environment. I have been fortunate to work with many successful clients and my experience continued to broaden to include retail, wholesale, hotel/resort, restaurants, individual, multi-unit bakery-café, and multi-unit wholesale bakeries.
Clients I Have Worked With
Fairmont Hotel-San Francisco, CA
Schat’s Dutch Bakeries-Bishop, CA
Spectrum Foods-San Francisco, CA
The Bakery-S. San Francisco, CA
Il Fornaio America-San Francisco, CA
La Brea Bakery-Los Angeles, CA
Rise Baking Co., New French Bakery-Minneapolis, MN
Bakers of Paris-San Francisco, CA
Aryzta-North America
Art Focaccia-Miami, FL
Best Express-Hayward, CA
Cafe Valley-Phoenix, AZ
Gold Coast Bakery-Santa Ana, CA
Flowers Foods: Dave's Killer Bread-Thomasville, GA
Izzio’s Bakery-Colorado
Metropol Bakery, Eugene, OR
Erika Record-New Jersey
Restounomics: Poggio, Copita-Sausalito, CA
And more….