This might seem like a weird place to vent a bit, but I'm going to give it a go.  I feel stuck.  I'm a 26 year old man who feels as though any opportunity has passed him by.  I've been working steady as a painter for the last 5 years, all the while growing more and more passionate about baking.  i bake as much as my schedule, and my budget, allows me to - and I love it.  My question is what do I do?  I went to almost every bakery in my hometown (Omaha,NE) and one of the managers (Wheatfields) actually said that I was too old to teach, the others either weren't interested or weren't hiring.  I never felt more worthless in my life.  Even though I knew the man at Wheatfields was wrong, it left me feeling very despondent, and extremely skeptical as to whether or not a career in baking was really for me.  Maybe the cards were just dealt differently.  

What's your advice?  For those of you that are bakers out there, or who own bakeries, what are you looking for?  Is a four-year degree what makes or breaks it?  Is it passion?  Is it trainability? Perception? Personality? I feel as though I'm trying as hard as I possibly can to really make a go at learning more and more about the art of bread, but I'm doing it alone.  A no one will take a chance on me.  

Again, this really does sound like a confessional, I apologize.  I figure who better to ask than people who are as passionate about bread as I!  Really, any advice at all would be appreciated.  The main question, really, is would spending $20,000 on an education just to have a degree in baking be worth it?  

 Thanks everyone

 Localfruitandveg 

I did a search of TFL and there is no record I can find of anyone ever posting about the fantastic pizza available in Connecticut, specifically in my home city of New Haven.

I suspect, therefore, that the TFL pizza-lovers out there (who eat restaurant-baked pizza) won't know that our small city is famous, around these parts anyway, for pizza, or as it is often written and spoken, "apizza."

Our pizza is at least famous enough to have a number of Wikepedia entries. I offer links to the two most famous apizza emporia, both on Wooster Street in the Little Italy section of the Elm City: Sally's Apizza and Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, a.k.a. Pepe's. If you're ever out this way, you will be happily surprised to taste the joys of coal-fired, brick-oven baked, thin-crusted pizza.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally's_Apizza

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Pepe_Pizzeria_Napoletana

Soundman (David)

My daughter recently moved into a near suburb on Milwaukee's South side which is known for great Italian and Serbian foods. Now that I think about it, it's a pretty well rounded area with many ethnic restaurants. I was happy to find a neighborhood bakery just down the street that had 'European Bakery' on the sign. Today I had a little time so I stopped in.

This was my youngest daughter's (14yo) first time in a commercial bakery I discovered. I wasn't ready for the array of breads and pastry's on display. The wall was a bread rack filled with all the usual suspects and the aroma was wonderful. The display case must have had 40 kinds of sweets, muffins/cookies/dough nuts/cheese pockets. They had a decent size case of high end anti-pasta salads and sold fresh pizza dough by the pound along with good Parmesan and buffalo cheese. I was thrilled to see al this Italian bakery.

I bought a little of this and that and sent my daughter to work with a large box of treats for gang at work. I brought home a few things including a 1/2 loaf of Italian that made me think of Marks small loaves from yesterday and a nice rye loaf. The slashing pattern is distinctive and the result is striking I think as you see it below. I was going to drop this post into the current thread on slashing patterns but I didn't want to prattle on in Davids thread which is interesting in its own right. Anyway, I thought this was interesting especially for a commercial shop allbeit a small one. The cut pattern down the length is puzzling to me.---Eric

Milwaukee Rye

I just wanted to spread the word about our new business venture.  My husband came up with the idea of starting a bread baking business out of our home.  The name of our business is "Anna Maria Artisinal Breads."   My grandmother Maria is our inspiration. I don't know if anyone is familiar with the Amish Friendship bread. Well we have put our own spin on the traditional version. Right now we bake Cinnamon, Chocolate, Banana Nut (which is one of our most popular), Pumpkin, Apple, Lemon, Rum Raisin, Coconut, Pistachio, Blueberry Almond, White Chocolate, Cookies N Cream, Coffee, Butterscotch, Mint Chocolate Chip and Cherry Cheesecake. We are always thinking of new variations to make. If you have any suggestions we are always open for feed back.  Please visit our website: http://annamariabreads.food.officelive.com.

Attachments

Here's a link to a Detroit Free Press feature on the best sandwiches in the Detroit metro area:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20080320&Category=FEATURES&ArtNo=803200802&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1

Other than changing planes at the Detroit Metro airport, I haven't been in Detroit for years and can't vouch for any of the businesses or sandwiches shown in the article; but I can drool!

Paul

Here is a link to a very special bakery located in Madison, Wisconsin.

http://www.madisonsourdough.com

In July we hosted an exchange student from Beijing. Each day his class took a field trip to some place notable in Oregon: the coast, Mt Hood, downtown Portland, the Columbia River Gorge. Oddly enough, one of the field trips they took was to Bob's Red Mill. I tagged along that day.

First we went to Bob's store and cafe.

The last time I was here the store and cafe were pretty small, but it has been greatly expanded.

The cafe featured pancakes and hot cereals that featured Bob's grains. I stuck with their whole wheat biscuits and jam, which were excellent.

After breakfast we went for a tour of their new warehouse and production facility.

I was impressed by how seriously they take "Gluten-free" processing. The gluten-free area is completely isolated from the rest of the processing, with completely separate mills, grain bags, even fork lifts. I guess I'd never really thought about how much is involved in guaranteeing that there gluten-free products are truly 100% gluten free.

An example of one of the stone mills they use today. I believe they are Skiold mills.

Mills at work. Not a terribly dynamic scene to photograph, but interesting nonetheless.

Bags of grain ready to grind.

I'll admit, the exchange students were a bit bored on the tour: the five minute nutritional comparision of golden versus red flax seeds wasn't really up their alley (Niketown, however). But I enjoyed the tour and the cafe and store are awesome.

I was wondering what the best way is to go about finding a job at a bread bakery?  Not some donut shack, but a truly down-to-earth bakery that makes everything from scratch.  I've been wanting to get into making breads at a bakery for so long, as I'm a baker at home and have a great amount of passion for it.  I could see myself falling more and more in love with the process.  I've looked all around Nebraska, where I'm from and currently live, but nothing is to be found - at least nothing that's looking for any help.  Any ideas as to where to go for a job?  Really anywhere in the country would be great!  Looking to move in a year or so, so if any of you are owners of bakeries or know of a network of people I could talk to, I would greatly appreciate it.  Also, just general advice would be helpful for me.  For all of you out there who do this for a living, and really love to create beautiful rich breads that make peoples day; I would love to hear your thoughts and advice for someone like me wanting to, in so many words, join the international family of bread bakers.

Thanks so much everyone

Andrew 

     Boulevard Bread Company is a European influenced bakery/deli located in Little Rock, AR. Specialize in hand-crafted artisan breads. Breads included are french baguettes, san francisco style sourdough, whole grain hearth loaves, and European style pastries.

(501)663-5951

Boulevard Bread Co. 

1920 N. Grant

Little Rock, Ar 72205 

Have you gotten off the ground yet? I haven't heard from you in a while and I just wanted to see how things were going. We are all envious of you and living out your dream!  I did get a little closer to some things I wanted. My husband must have overheard me complain about the kitchen tile and how every one on here was going on and on about your countertop being so nice, and I came in one day and the old tile was flying everywhere! I now have new countertops. Smooth as a baby's butt! YEA! But alas, one thing leads to another...the new counters made the cabinets look bad, so I started sanding and refinishing them, and of course the old paint looks bad....well you've been there before! Enjoy your weekend!

                                                                                                      Audra36274