Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jayce Baudry, owner, and executive pastry chef of Jayce Baudry French Pastry, located in Montclair, NJ, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
This pastry shop is different than the traditional bakery as we are focusing on upscale French pastry products with fine ingredients. You can find pastries and cakes like those made in pastry shops in Paris but are rare to find here. The shop also offers a complete array of chocolates, macarons, ice creams. We do offer local delivery and nationwide shipping.
Tell us about yourself
A lot of pastry chefs will probably tell you that their passion for pastry comes from the memories of smells in the kitchen, baking alongside their mother or grandmother. For me, I would say that it’s the inverse. My mother was a hardworking single parent. She rarely had time for cooking and even less for baking cakes. So, I think this lack of sweets in my childhood inspired me to begin baking my first cakes using store-bought cake mixes. Around the age of 14, I felt that I was ready to start working. I started to stage in a couple of bakeries, and during this time, I realized that I wanted to make pastry my career.
In pastry, anything is possible. We are working with food, but we can transform it into the shape or form of anything. There are no borders in pastry- except the respect of the noble ingredients that we use, but other than that, it is an ocean of possibilities. I would say that chocolate sculpture is what I am the most passionate about. It is just amazing to me how from the fruit of a plant, we can end up creating complex structures and textures.
After working for many years for other chefs and having been out of work because of COVID, I decided it was now the time for me to shake things up and work for myself.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
We are still a very recent business as we opened a couple of months ago, there is still so much more that we want to accomplish. Every day just to see the smile on our customer's face after enjoying one of my desserts, that is the greatest reward.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
I would say that the hardest thing is to have to juggle all of the different roles. You have to be an accountant, a sales associate, a customer service rep, repairman, web designer...and at the same time a pastry chef.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Identify your product and understand the needs of the market around you.
- Surround yourself with professionals for all of the different aspects- especially accounting, legal, and marketing.
- Don't stress if something is not going according to the original plan, because it will happen and you'll have to adjust yourself. Be flexible.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.jaycebaudry.com/
Facebook: https://bit.ly/3AUDVK9
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaycebaudryfrenchpastry/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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