Rise Up! The Baker Podcast with Mark Dyck

Emily Cayer is bringing a lifetime of wildlife conservation and a love of nature to the baking community, through her new collaborative venture, We Knead Nature. Emily is organizing farmers, millers, bakers and brewers to ensure we are all giving back to the source of our great grains, nature itself. In this episode, Emily shares the mission of We Knead Nature and the progress the group has made o...

Blair Marvin and Andrew Heyn are the epitome of bakers who are connected to the community.  Through their bakery, Elmore Mountain Bread and their stone mill building company New American Stone Mills, they are building a web of connections in rural Vermont.  From the farmers who grow their grain to the quarries that cut the stone for their mills and the people who love their bread, Blair and Andrew...

In this solo episode of Rise Up!  Mark talks about the fear that generates when comfortable routines get broken and getting clear on who you are baking for.  Whether you're reviewing your product lineup or looking at your front entrance with fresh eyes, it's important to remember who are the people that you are serving every day. There are also some awesome listener emails and some big news in Mar...

Ask a chef enough questions and you eventually get work in the kitchen.  At least that's what happened to Lisa Somerville.  After always finding extra waitress shifts and asking a ton of questions, Lisa embarked on a varied career as a pastry chef in restaurants and hotels, before finally opening her own bakery in the vacation heartland of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. In this episode, Mar...

  Mitch Stamm had a long and varied culinary career but truly soared when he switched to baking.   He is a long serving board member of the Bread Bakers Guild of America, renowned baking instructor at Johnson and Wales University and has coached the very best bakers in America via the Team USA competitive baking team. In this episode, Mark learns about Mitch's circuitous route in cooking from Alab...

Joe Fitzmaurice comes from a long line of bakers and restaurateurs.  But when he and his wife Julie closed their successful Dublin bakery to move to a tiny Eco-village in Cloughjordan, he was making a statement about local community, local grain and the Common Loaf. In this episode, Mark learns about life in an intentional community, how Soda Bread is a new 'tradition', what the Common Loaf moveme...

The pull of craftsmanship is strong in Jerod Pfeffer.  His bakery, 460 Bread in Driggs Idaho, provides exceptional bread throughout the Teton Mountains. And it's drawn him into the world of competitive bread baking as well. Jerod is a member of Team USA , hoping to compete in the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie next spring in Paris. In this episode, Mark and Jerod talk about building 460 Bread, w...

Mark attended the 4th Annual Le Goût Du Grain / A Taste For Grain gathering in Montreal and had an absolute blast. In this episode, Mark shares his impressions of Montreal, gives an overview of the gathering, heaps praise on the organizers and shares his thoughts on the emerging Food Security / Food Sovereignty movement. This revolution will be tasty!   Helpful Links: A Taste For Grain Tricot Prin...

Four years ago, Gus Reckel changed careers and sunk his life savings into converting an old print shop into a bakery and cafe on the edge of Bushwick, Brooklyn.  L'Imprimerie is going strong, bringing traditional French baked goods (and new flavours too) to the neighbourhood, along with fun, humour and irreverence too. In this episode, Mark learns about the difference between investment banking an...

Jennifer Lapidus has made a huge mark all over the Southern USA baking scene.  A baker and former bakery owner, Jennifer is the founder of the Carolina Ground mill and a leading advocate for bread wheat production in the South.  She's also one of the lead organizers of the famous Asheville Bread Festival. In this episode, Mark tries his best to keep up with everything going on in Jennifer's life. ...

Tara Jensen is an author and an artist.  Her community is so lucky that bread and pastry are her media. Over her baking career, Tara has built and rebuilt bakeries under her Smoke Signals brand, first in North Carolina and currently in rural Kentucky.  In this episode, Mark and Tara talk about her journey south from her native Maine, her baking and educational retreats and how starting baking for...

When Josey Baker moved West, it was to advance childhood education.  But a lucky gift of some sourdough started changed everything. In this episode, Mark and Josey talk about his rapid rise from Community Supported Baker to building out Josey Baker Bread as part of The Mill in San Francisco.  But throughout it all, there is a much deeper discussion of culture, values, privilege, mentors and leader...

Daniel Speek grew up in the US but now lives in the Netherlands, where he is slowly and steadily growing a following for his bread and baking.  It's hard work, especially in a market that does not have a strong bread culture. In this episode, Mark and Daniel talk about the bread scene in Maastricht, alternative ways to bootstrap and grow a micro bakery and what it's like to live and bake in a squa...

It took incredible persistence for Jeffrey Hamelman to become a bread baker.  From the time he finally convinced a local bakery owner to hire him, he has grown his knowledge and skills to an immense level.  Thankfully, Jeffrey's life has been as much about teaching as it has been about baking. In this episode,  Mark and Jeffrey talk about the highlights of his illustrious career, from competing in...

  Peter Reinhart is the author of many books on bread and pizza in addition to being a stellar baker and teacher. His 2001 book The Bread Baker's Apprentice was the first bread book Mark ever bought and kick-started hundreds of baking journeys around the world. In this episode, Mark learns about Peter's winding and accomplished career in baking, writing and teaching, his love of pizza and the amaz...

Marc-Andre Cyr started out with the dream of getting famous as a musician.  Now he's famous to the baker family as a baker, teacher and founder of Montreal's hippest grain conference, Le Goût du Grain / A Taste For Grain. In this episode, Mark and Marc talk the vibrant restaurant scene in Montreal, getting started in baking, the challenges of baking in a restaurant, and his vision for Le Goût du G...

Sheena Howdle is travelling the world, baking bread wherever she goes.  After graduating from baking school on Vancouver Island, she slowly moved East, spending time in Saskatoon before making the big leap to the United Kingdom. In this episode, Mark and Sheena talk about her life as a professional bread baker; where she first realized a life in food was for her, combining travel and baking. the s...

Sarah Rossi worked at bakeries from a young age, but never saw baking as a career choice.  But after the Great Recession hit, she figured working with dough was close to working with clay and the rest is history. In this episode, Mark and Sarah talk about the Rhode Island School of Design, life as a bread baker in one of Boston's premiere bakeries, the generosity of the baking community and dealin...

Not only was Teisha our first intern at Orange Boot Bakery, but she also moved to Regina full time after graduation and became our Head of Bread. These were Orange Boot's blissful days, where we had a full team and were rocking out the best baked goods in town. But after a few years together, things got hard for Teisha and she felt she needed to switch careers for a while. Thank goodness that didn...

Lieschen Moller has a busy career in the health care field, but bread baking has her in its gluten-y tentacles.  Last year, she started Lizzy's Bakehouse, a cottage microbakery that is making awesome bread for her subscription customers. In this episode, Mark and Lieschen talk about starting a microbakery as a side hustle, the connections she's made with bakers, the joy and perils of Instagram and...

Slow Rise Bakery has been an inspiration for Mark ever since Paul and his partner built their timber framed bakehouse and brick oven in 2007.  Yet this is the first time they've met and had a chance to get to know each other. In this episode, Mark and Paul discuss running a bakery within the constraint of living on a small island, designing a lifestyle around bread baking and what it's like to use...

When Helene Godin left her law career, she dreamed of opening a cute bakery that served her local community in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.  And she did that, at least for a little while. By The Way Bakery now has four locations in New York and is in over 40 Whole Foods Markets.  In this episode, Mark and Helene talks about making the switch from the corporate life, getting started, then leaping...

Green Rabbit Breads isn't Suzanne Slomin's first sourdough bread bakery and it's not her first bakery set on a farm.  However Green Rabbit  is  her first solar powered bakery, nestled in the picturesque Mad River Valley of Vermont. In this episode, Mark an introduction into running a small year round bakery in tourist country, the fun of getting a commercial oven from the gravel road to the bake h...

Jeff McCarthy is bringing the good stuff to the people of Greensboro, North Carolina.  Bread from his new microbakery is popping up at farmers markets and being dropped off via a new subscription service. And he's also caring for two kids as a stay at home dad at the same time. In this episode, Mark learns about Jeff's wild and crazy journey in food and pastry before getting bitten by the bread bu...

Travis Gerjets is the owner of Prairie Sky Breads in Minot, North Dakota.  It's a popular farmer's market and subscription bakery and Travis is working hard to expand into his own production space. In this episode, Mark learns about how Travis got into baking, what life is like in Minot after the Great Flood of 2011 and how Travis is methodically and confidently planning for his expansion.  He's a...