4. Food

I can bake something beautiful

 My goal has always been to feed people. It’s a basic, noble way of living a life of service to our fellow human beings and if you do it right, it can be a career.

Bakers on a whole I think are concerned with quality and consistency. It’s critical to getting customers to come back. The quality and consistency extends from the food to the service to the appearance of the bakery. Customers like to know what to expect.

I think though there is a definite secrecy amongst bakers with regards to recipes, for the most part, everyone is willing to help other bakers out. A baker might not give you her prized brownie recipe but if you asked why your own recipe wasn’t working out, they would happily guide you.

The “baker’s dozen” is an interesting concept to touch on. What started as a way to insure against “fraud” has become something of a legit generosity and a marketing technique.

Bakers have long been the center of community. Long ago you would bring your loaves to be baked by the village baker in the village oven. While that is no longer a practice, when Covid hit, many grocery store shelves were empty of bread and local bakeries were able to take up the slack. We basically shifted all of our wholesale restaurant production to supplying local small retail store and direct to consumers.

Speaking of community, many bakeries are still gathering places with regulars who gather at the same time every day to catch up. Children grow up going to these bakeries and countless memories are made.

There’s so much more but I’ll leave it to others to add.