Rise Up! The Baker Podcast with Mark Dyck

January is often a quiet time at the bakery (at least compared to December!) so it's a great time to step back and reflect on your business and what needs attention. In this episode, Mark shares how he and Cindy did their January planning at their bakery, and how a new book has helped him fix the gaps in his planning process.  Plus  his review of the past Covid infected holiday season.   Helpful L...

Mark shares his best tips for surviving the Christmas rush at the bakery. Plus, near death experiences, tiny Christmas Orders, podcast plans for 2021 and a musical recommendation that you're going to love. Maybe. Helpful Links Metro's Christmas Album on YouTube Support the Podcast Here! Rise Up! The Baker Podcast website The Bakers4Bakers Community Mark's Blog, with the  Bakernomics series Mark on...

Hannah Sadler is baking the good stuff for the folks in her town of Springfield, TN. She started in her oven until her kitchen was full to bursting, then opened Grain + Honey last year. Hannah's been there for her community through Covid and is slowly building a strong team to keep feeding the people. In this episode, Hannah shares how she's been making the business work so far and how the town em...

Chris Stafferton is on a quest to bring delicious, nutritious gluten free bread to the centre of the table. Bread that everyone enjoys, whether they can digest gluten or not. Chris' book is the result of a decade of research and experimentation, with 60 gluten free formulas across the whole spectrum of bread. In this episode, Mark learns about the origin of Chris' 'bread architect' moniker, how he...

Mark Primmer is a baker and a poet and you can find both at the Well Bred market stand in Duncan BC. In this episode, Mark the host talks with Mark the baker about his long, winding journey in baking and food before he built Well Bred from the ground up. And how words matter, whether in product naming or forging an authentic connection with customers. Helpful Links Well Bred Bakery website @wellbr...

Martin Barnett has been a baker, bakery owner and teacher for over 40 years.  After retiring as the head of the baking program at Vancouver Island University, he built the bakery and teaching centre Seraphina's Oven beside his home in Ladysmith, BC and is still teaching professionals and amateurs alike. In this episode, Mark catches up with his friend and learns about his early days as a bread run...

Rose Gray is back!  After completing her cycling/baking adventure in Belgium and Denmark, Rosie returned to her native Scotland to oh, let's see, organize an awesome gathering on local grains, convert a horse trailer into a bakery and start baking six days a week for the people in her village.  And start University.  And more! In this episode, Mark gets all caught up on her adventures, learns how...

After a full and successful career as a broadcaster and journalist, Stephen Knight switched to baking and has worked in some of the most renowned bakeries in the USA. Currently Stephen is the head baker at the Expedia Group kitchen in Seattle, or he will be again once Covid passes. In this episode, Stephen channels his inner journalist to learn more about Mark's baking journey, then shares his exp...

Today is a special five person podcast!  Coinciding with the world premiere of Bakers Dozen Stories, a series of short documentary films about bakers and their craft, we are joined by the filmmakers and the bakers featured in the first film, FERMENT. Andre and Rafa teamed up to make Ferment Boulder, a micro bakery with a ton of heart and some seriously fast delivery bikes.  Brian is a filmmaker an...

Mike Vaona has combined his vocation and his avocation. By day, he brings his hardware engineering skills to the team at Ooni ovens, making incredibly small and highly effective pizza ovens. By night, he is either baking his own bread or advising his squadron of Instagram followers. In this episode, Mark and Mike discuss Mike's shift from Internet startups to pizza ovens, how the baking community...

Gregoire Michaud grew up in the Swiss Alps, but his career took him to the top hotels and restaurants in the US and Hong Kong, before opening Bakehouse in 2013. His bakery continues to grow and evolve, as he tried to bring his baking closer to the people. In this episode, Mark and Gregoire talk about his baking journey from three star restaurants to his own bakery, what it's like having a bakery i...

Mark returns from a brief hiatus with a Baker's Choice episode; short riffs and stories from around the world of baking and bakery ownership. What merit badges could your bakery staff earn? Are you bending to shape your neigbourhood or searching for people who need you as you are? Plus a visit to Seraphina's Oven in Ladysmith BC. Helpful Links Seraphina's Oven - Martin Barnett's bakery project Sup...

After 15 years in the food industry, Megan O'Connor and her partner Graham decided to settle in Arnprior, Ontario and open their own shop. They are putting all their energy into Mighty Fine Bakehouse, living and baking in the same building. While they opened mere weeks before Covid hit, it was enough time to be embraced by their new community. In this episode, Megan shares her vision for her baker...

In 2014, three friends got together to bake and sell their bread to the restaurants where they worked. They grew in a shipping container and later in the building across the car park. Now, The Dusty Knuckle is one of the can't miss bakeries in London. In this episode, Mark and Head of Bread Daisy Terry discuss their evolution from a borrowed kitchen, how they continue to adapt to COVID, and what t...

When Sam Temple moved back to his native New Hampshire, he knew he needed a different career. So he started baking, a few loaves, then more, then more. These days, Fire Dog Breads is a full retail bakery making ferociously good bread and pastries for their community in Keene. In this episode, Mark and Sam talk about running across each other on the Guild forums when Sam was starting out, the slow,...

We celebrate 100 episodes of Rise Up! with a wild, far reaching conversation with Charbel Abrache and Jonathan Bethony, bakers and millers at Seylou, in Washington DC. With baking journeys that bloom beyond the US to Senegal and Venezuela, Jonathan and Charbel are now hyper focused on the grains closest to their bakery, and are looking far beyond wheat to their menu. In this episode, Mark learns a...

Kostas Karamichos may live and bake in a tiny village of 400 people in the mountains of Greece, but he is connected to people from around the world. While he bakes for the people of his village and cooks for special events, he also hosts travellers from across the globe, sharing his special piece of paradise. In this episode, Mark goes on a virtual tour of Kostas' bakery as the delve into what bei...

Khaled Mahmassani grew up in Dubai, but his family was originally from Beirut. Khaled moved back to Lebanon to when he became a professional baker, and has been making the good stuff for the people of Beirut ever since. Switching from baking to teaching before the Covid pandemic, Khaled continues to teach baking in Lebanon and the Arabian peninsula. In this episode, Mark learns about Khaled's baki...

Jim Challenger is a passionate home baker who can't just sit with an idea. After trying every current method of baking great bread in a home oven, Jim created the Challenger Bread Pan, a cast iron baking pan specifically for bread. Response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. In this episode, Mark and Jim talk about the intricacies of designing and producing a new product, why it'...

The Covid19 pandemic has thrown us all for a loop, forcing some bakeries to close and others to quickly adapt and change. But not all change has been bad. In this episode, Annie Moss and Emily Squadra, bakery owners from Portland, Oregon join Mark to discuss how their businesses have changed in the time of Covid, and how the crisis has helped them remember what is truly important to them and to th...

Chris Hruskova travelled the world as a chef before settling in London. There, he teamed up with his friend and successful former bakery owner Per Brun to open Bread Station, with Chris running a location in London and Per in Copenhagen. In this episode, Mark learns how this multi-national partnership came to be, how adapting to English bread culture meant seeking wholesale customers and how the c...

Twelve years ago, Ciril Hitz wrote two of the most influential baking books around, complete with a companion DVD to bring his baking to life.   He continues teaching and sharing his skills to this day, through Johnson and Wales University, personal classes and his popular BreadHitz website. In this episode, Mark learns about Ciril's early days as an Industrial Design student, how Peter Reinhart f...

  Matthew Duffy is all over Instagram with his baking and cooking videos, spreading the good word about great bread.  He's also teaching the next generation of bakers at Centennial College in Toronto. In this episode, Mark learns all about Matthew's long and winding career, cooking for celebrities and with celebrity chefs, while slowing and steadily developing his baking chops to the point where h...

It seems that every baker and bakery owner out there has been affected by Coronavirus.   We are hosting a free live Zoom Call on Monday March 30 at Noon PT to get together with bakers from all around the world to talk about how you are adapting in a world turned upside down. You are invited!  To join the call, sign up to Bakers4Bakers.org (the free online community about the business of baking) On...

How are you dealing with The Virus?  Are you hanging in there?   In this episode, Mark riffs on the impacts to bakers, how what was impossible is now possible, and how we need a better story once this crisis has passed.  Now is not the time to give up!  We can get through this together!   Helpful Links Support the Show Here! Rise Up! The Baker Podcast website The Bakers4Bakers Community Mark's Blo...