64 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} pastry pros bonjourbakehouse.com çois to open several shops before he launched Bonjour Bakehouse at San Mateo’s KitchenTown, a professional kitchen and incubator for culinary startups. Ingrid brings business savvy to the partnership and her role requires her to make the tough decisions, like ending the bakery’s bread-making. “We made the best baguette I had ever had in the U.S.,” Ingrid says. “They told us we could do better.” With the critics satisfied, the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce recently declared Bonjour Bakehouse the Best Bakery in San Mateo. What makes the food culture so strong in France? Ingrid points to the schools and the way French children are raised. “From the ages of 3 to 18 years you are seated at a table of six kids and served one meal at lunch,” she describes. ”You sit for 30 minutes and have to try everything, sometimes crazy stuff.” At home, many children spend time in the kitchen in France as well and there is an emphasis on eating together. Ingrid and François plan to expand locally and say they are ready to bring baguettes back to the menu sometime soon. “I believe in making a few things really, really well,” François sums up. “I need to make food—it is my world.” “But it was costing too much.” While François was vacationing in France, she axed the bread program and broke the news to him when he returned. Growing up in France, while Ingrid inherited a love for baking from her mother and grandmother, she pursued a mechanical engineering degree and wound up in Silicon Valley. She rose through the ranks working in management consulting and startups. “I burned myself out and needed to do something different,” she confesses. Ingrid decided to earn her baking certification and went back to France for the rigorous two-year training. When François and Ingrid need to run taste tests, they rely on their families and friends as critics. “Our kids are foodies and always tell us what is missing in a dish,” says Ingrid with a smile. “We had some tasting sessions and invited our families and they were very strict with us.” Their friends have high expectations and demand perfection, she says.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==