Rise Up! The Baker Podcast with Mark Dyck

Sarah Black sadly passed away on February 15, 2024.  To commemorate this kind and thoughtful baker and teacher, we are re-publishing Mark's chat with Sarah from Episode 153.  Recorded in October, 2021 Sarah's family announced her passing via Sarah's Instagram page . Helpful Links Support the Podcast Here Rise Up! The Baker Podcast website The Bakers4Bakers Community Mark on Instagram Credits: Prod...

The podcast hits a major milestone by going back to the beginning.  In this special 200th episode, Mark is joined by Daisy Chow of Breadboard Bakery in Arlington, Mass. and Nate Houge of Brake Bread in St. Paul, Minnesota for a wide ranging conversation about everything that's changed since they first met back at Wheatstalk in Rhode Island in 2018, when the podcast was an idea but not yet a real t...

Claudia Fimbres and her husband Brad named their store and restaurant Mamacita after Claudia's mother, but these days, it's Claudia who is mother and aunty to an entire community of Latin food lovers in her new home of Pearl Harbour, Newfoundland. In this episode, Mark catches up with his old friend and learns of her life in cooking, from growing up in Mexico, coming to Canada and deciding to move...

Working with a coach or consultant can be a leap too far for many small business owners, especially owner-operator independent bakeries.  Lisa Arnold set out to bridge the gap in her town of Springfield, Tennessee, with Small Town Startup, a marketing agency, startup incubator, coaching practice and meeting space. Lisa is bringing the skills and best practices usually reserved for large corporatio...

After working as a baker on both coasts, Amy Corliss returned to her home state twelve years ago to open her own place in downtown Fort Collins, Colorado.  She recently moved down the road to a new space and is focused on building community, growing her team and feeding the people in a converted 1905 heritage house. In this episode, Mark and Amy talk about her pastry school experience in Vancouver...

Ed and Natasha Tatton have been building an outstanding, 100% plant based bakery in Whistler, BC for several years, and have just launched a stellar cookbook from the bakery.  The book is both approachable and very detailed, explaining the intricacies and advantages of vegan baking while bringing Ed's incredible flavour combinations to each recipe.  In this Episode, Mark talks with Natasha and Ed...

Martha Barber began her baking career by taking cookies into the office at Christmas time.  Now she's shipping her delicious shortbread all over Vancouver Island and onto the mainland too. In this episode, Mark and Martha discuss the steady growth of her bakery, how strategic partnerships have helped the business grow, finding predictable, repeatable wholesale contracts and why she still thrives o...

Okotoks, Alberta is a small community south of Calgary that boasts an old-fashioned main street, beautiful views of the Rocky Mountain foothills and, for the past few years, a top notch bakery and cafe.  In this episode, Mark talks to Brad Labrenz and Marie-Luce Denis, owners of French50 Bakery, who are attracting hungry folk from well beyond the town limits.  They talk about how they've grown fro...

With the cost of living continuing to rise, bakers and other food service workers are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet.  The Living Wage for Families Campaign is focused on identifying the real costs of living in Canadian cities and works with businesses to move toward paying employees a real living wage. In this episode, Mark talks with Anastasia French of the BC arm of Living Wage...

Tabitha Langel wanted to serve her community in Winnipeg first and foremost.  After much prayer and deliberation, she decided that baking was the way to do it.  Now, over 35 years later, Tall Grass Prairie Bakery is at the heart of two core neighbourhoods in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In this episode, Tabitha and Ryan Stoesz talk about the origins of Tall Grass, their intentional approach to change and g...

Black Market Bakers is taking off like a rocket ship in Annapolis, Maryland.  Steve O'Leary, his dad and his brother have grown the business from a home kitchen (with Steve's mom selling the loaves door to door) to a food truck, to a full bakery/cafe to recently launching a second location.  But through it all, the business has had a singular focus on happy people -- happy staff, happy customers a...

Stefan Spicknell knows who his bakery is for.  All he has to do is look out his door on Great Western Road in Glasgow and look at the flats, the schools and the people walking by.  And his deep focus those people, and his craft, is what keeps Cottonrake Bakery grounded in his community.  In this episode, Mark and Stefan talk about Stefan's journey to the Great Western Road, from a rented kitchen,...

Maurizio Leo has been writing the excellent Perfect Loaf blog for a decade now, teaching thousands and thousands of people to bake amazing sourdough bread.  His writing and teaching style, paired with top-notch photography, makes his site one of the most important resources in the baking community and his new book is helping him reach an even larger audience. In this episode, Mark learns what driv...

Ron Bokenfohr is looking for a new (old) way to grow grain and feed the soil at the same time.  His farming and milling operation north of Edmonton, Alberta is focused on regenerative agriculture: farming with a focus on building a complex, healthy soil. In this episode, Mark and Ron talk about the process of shifting to a regenerative farming model and Ron's progress in building a grain sprouting...

Charlie and Hilde Muller were bakers before they moved to the middle of the forest in western Michigan and began carving a home, a bakery and a life from the woods.  Laughing Tree Bakery has been going strong for the past 14 years, feeding the people via the Muskegon Farmers Market and several stores and cafes in the region. In this episode, Mark, Hilde and Charlie swap stories about their shared...

Moving to an island in the Pacific Northwest is not easy.  Moving intentionally, with a view of contributing to the community is even more difficult.  But Sage Dilts and Nathan Hodges have done just that with their farm and bakery on Lopez Island, Washington. In this episode, Mark learns how Sage and Nathan met in grad school in the Bay Area, where Sage also developed her baking chops, how they fo...

Tom Giancola caught the bread bug watching Netflix seven years ago, and his friends and neighbours have never been happier.  His generous spirit feeds an ever larger group of people in Annapolis, Maryland, through his exceptional basement bakery, Makeathe. In this episode, Mark and Tom talk about the intricacies of building a professional bakery under your living room, how his baking has been embr...

Fry's Bakery has been a stalwart of Craigflower Road in Victoria for a decade, a shining as an example of how a baker with an old mixer and a brick oven can feed a neighbourhood. In this episode, Mark and Byron sit down at the bakery (well, directly above it) to talk about how the world needs a bakery in every neighbourhood, about starting businesses at a young age, and how leadership is important...

All it took was a well made hollandaise sauce for Daniel Saez to switch from life as a lawyer to a life in food.  Starting as a culinary chef in his native Venezuela, Daniel eventually made his way to Canada and shifted from culinary to pastry and finally to bread.  Now his bakery, Noctua Bread Project in the Junction in Toronto is focused on serving the best possible baked goods to the people in...

Haley Landa and Curtis Helm met in pastry school and have been steadily building their skills and experiences in hotels and restaurants in Canada and beyond.  All this work has culminated in opening Goodside Pastry House in Victoria last month, opening to huge lineups and extremely happy customers. In this episode, Mark takes a trip to the bakery to chat with Curtis and Haley around the bench, in...

David Aplin was a rock guitarist who apprenticed as a baker at Loblaws.  Camelia Proulx was building a career in the food industry front-of-house.  Together, they spent the past 12 years rocking the baking world in Scarborough, Ontario at their bakery Cliffside Hearth. In this episode, Mark, David and Camelia sit down to talk bread, wood fired ovens and getting the maximum production from a very s...

Anna Gordon started selling her amazing cookies at the Brooklyn Flea in 2010 and has since created a delicious destination bakery in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.   In this episode, we kick off 2023 with a vibrant conversation about Anna's love of creating layers of flavours and textures, visualizing the perfect day of a bakery owner, and what it's like to create a platform that does so much tasty good...

Karen Bornarth has been an active part of the American bread scene for over two decades.  This past July, she was named Executive Director of the Bread Bakers Guild of America and is fully engaged moving the baking profession forward. In this episode, Karen shares her baking story, from late nights at Amy's Breads to her baking and education work at Hot Bread Kitchen.  And they dig into Karen't vi...

When Kitty Tait was 14, she went through a very rough time, and baking bread was key to her recovery.  She baked, and baked, and baked some more, until her friends and neighbours were well fed, and she kept on baking.  Soon Kitty and her dad Alex were baking by subscription, then at a retail shop and are now running The Orange Bakery in Watlington, UK full time. In this episode, Mark, Kitty and Al...

When Josh Houston started teaching cooking at his local high school, the incumbent chef put him in charge of the baking program.  It didn't take long before Josh was baking so much bread and pastries in order to 'crack the code' of yeast and gluten that he needed to start selling his extras.  Stark Raving Bread was born. In this episode, Mark and Josh discuss the birth and growth of Josh's bakery,...