Wake up to the NorthBend Bakery with Aaron Raff

Michael Dugan: 1:11

Aaron Raff gets up before the sunrise to create a true baking experience for his customers. Today on the show we'll follow his path that led from a connection in cooking school in Kentucky, to working for Tom Douglas, becoming a Head Production Baker at the Grateful Bread and eventually the owner of the North Bend bakery in the beautiful Pacific Northwest in Washington State. Aaron, welcome to the show. Can you walk us through your culinary journey and share with us what led you into pastry?

Aaron Raff: 3:14

I went to culinary school 12 years ago, most of the culinary school was actually cooking. Of the five labs there was only one baking lab. But I really fell in love with the technique with the science behind the baking. Out of culinary school I had two internships. One was at a restaurant the evening one was at a bakery in the morning. And I just gravitated more towards that environment early morning kind of rising for everybody getting your day started supplying something for the community that everybody loves. Instead of that grind of the restaurant that late night though it has its own satisfactions. It just it just really wasn't for me. I got hired on bluegrass Baking Company in Lexington, Kentucky out of culinary school, I did my internship there and then I was hired on that was really a small town bakery. His mom had started it, he took it over. So it was really, really that family essence bakery where I got that, that drive, to learn, be creative, and work as a team. In the end goal. It's a marathon, right? So it's the day and the day out. But it's the year in and year out of just that consistency that the community and the customers are, are appreciative of out of bluegrass Baking Company. I actually am from Seattle, so from Kentucky, after my wife graduated law school, we moved back to Seattle, the executive pastry chef for Tom Douglas actually went to the same culinary school I did. And Kentucky really with that connection. I believe I got the production baking job for Tom Douglas. So I'm sure they get hundreds of applications. But sometimes a little connection like that, you know, doesn't hurt.

Michael Dugan: 4:57

Yeah, Tom is a cultural icon of Seattle for our listeners around the world. And that sounds like an amazing opportunity.

Aaron Raff: 5:07

It really was. I got to do you kind of start at the ground level making the coconut cream pies, which is kind of his staple at all of his restaurants and his bakeries. You know, it was a really unique experience to get catering requests, for Eric Clapton, Justin Bieber, people like that when they were doing certain concerts. Tom's catering company would get probably post concert food requests. You got to really feel the pull that Tom has in the city and, and a reason why it's so great to work for somebody like that. You get to really learn production. You get to really learn like efficiency. There's a difference between working at a really small bakery that you know, bread starters, 30 years old and their mother is 50 years old, and you just you only do 15 loaves. But those loaves are just so great and so much goes into it. And then you get the reverse where, you know, Tom's more not corporate, but more like he's so up there where, you know, you're doing hundreds and hundreds of whatever it is, every day, that's where I really learn how to be a production Baker, where every second counts, you know, you've got some on the burner, you can be scaling something else out, you can be scooping this, you could be, you know, you're always kind of thinking three, four or five steps ahead, you're always thinking a day or two ahead, where you know what's coming down the road, you know, what's gonna need to happen. So you start to prep you start to so there's, there's these things don't get to learn, unless you're kind of thrown into that experience. You don't get that at culinary school, you don't get that at a lot of other bakeries. But Tom was where I, where I learned far more than any other work experience that I had, after about three years, you know, I kind of ran my course, Tom was expanding and expanding, he got the Starbucks roastery. And he got on Alaska Airlines. And he got all and he was just getting a little too big for me. And I kind of didn't see much more of moving up on the totem pole, sort of. So I started looking more back towards more small local bakery where I can maybe be a higher title and have a little bit more of a say on what goes on day to day because I kind of thought I kind of thought I was there. And so The Grateful Bread in North Seattle was looking for a head baker, its current head baker was a previous production Baker at Tom Douglas. So when she saw my resume as a production Baker, Tom Douglas, she told me that I was fully capable of doing the job and that she would put the recommendation in for me. Because she knew what it took to be a production Baker at Tom Douglas. And she new what it took to be a Head Baker at the The Grateful Bread. And she was like, you're totally totally if you've worked for Tom for a couple of years, you're you can totally do this job, I learned a whole different set of skills, kind of managing a team kind of setting certain pars for the day, whether we want this many of these and this many of these. Having more kind of responsibility fall on your shoulders for some of your other you know, your co workers mistakes, which it comes with the territory, right, you got to be able to, to own not only your mistakes, but the mistakes of other people who you may have been overseeing, which may be an oversight on your part where you didn't train well enough, you can always learn from not only your mistakes, but people's mistakes that you may have under you, because it may have been a short sight on, on how you managed or how you trained. And so I'm always I'm always looking at that then, you know, pointing the fingers like there's, it doesn't do anybody any good.

Michael Dugan: 8:43

I think the key is to learn from the mistakes and sort of file on the way and try not to create those mistakes again.

Aaron Raff: 8:53

I would say that I'm pretty good at you know, I make my fair share mistakes. But I'm pretty good at learning my lessons, we did really well the Grateful Bread, they had a second location, we did we increased, we did some wholesale that they hadn't done before, I felt like we were we were growing the business pretty well. I wanted to open up a third location with a Grateful Bread, and they weren't really interested in opening a third location at that time. And so I kind of started looking around just at other avenues. I was living up at Linwood at the time. So I went into the Edmonds bakery. That Bakery has been there a long time. And I had an interview with the owner, just to kind of pick his brain about owning a small bakery, kind of feeling out if he was looking to retire potentially anytime soon. And I didn't get that field at all. Which is great. But I thought I kind of got the taste that was something that really I wanted to do, which was own something like this, where the community knows that you support the community, and that taking over an existing bakery would be a more accomplishable feature than than creating one out of thin air and trying to grow something like that. Not that that's not feasible. You know, it happens all the time. But I just thought if I was gonna maybe go that route that I would try this. This route first. Honestly, I went on Craigslist. It was George's bakery at the time in North Bend was for sale on Craigslist. I emailed the owner, I would say no more than 20 minutes later, he emailed me basically saying that he was waiting for somebody like me. I'm suspecting he was getting bids from like business people or non bakers.

Michael Dugan: 10:46

It's got to be the right person with passion and drive and connection to the community and you have that that's amazing.

Aaron Raff: 10:52

It was fate. I don't know exactly, you know, but it was one of those like, meant to be tie moments, he owns the building. And then he took over the bakery as a non Baker, and I think after a couple years, he kind of got burnt out. And he wanted he knew that he needed a baker to take it over. And I think as the bakery has been there 90 years, and as the building owner, he knew that the bakery the success of the bakery was what was the most important thing there. And so I think he was waiting for I guess, somebody with my baking experience to take over knowing that with the business that you would kind of learn on the fly how to run a business as long as you had the baking background, that it was obtainable. I had taken business classes at the University of Oregon so I had a general idea in terms of the business side and not just baking I had baking down it was you know, product costs and labor costs stand up and overhead and running the business running the business right so know that that had some bumps but what I knew the foundation needed to be was community being in a small town being that the bakery had been there long enough knowing that the the success of the of the bakery is dependent upon the community that supports it and sure you get travelers up and down 90. And you get people coming from Seattle and so forth and so on but but really what's what's going to be the heart of the bakery is the local community. I joined the Chamber of Commerce. I donated to whoever you know whatever organization you know, needed it or wanted it. I bought into the Little League you know, Put stuff on the you know, the jerseys or the posters. I offer gift cards to the elementary school. We are trying to entrench ourselves in the community. Not being from North Bend, but the greater Seattle area.

Michael Dugan: 14:27

But I see something very unique here that I want to share. When I hear you I hear your passion. You're not doing it because you're just trying to build the business you're doing it because you believe in the community you believe in you know, being an amazing Baker you have a passion that you really want to own something really special and I respect that it is it is a thrive to have something that you can call like your own and know that it's a journey. It's a lifelong journey to nourish this it's not a it's not a sprint in and out or hey, maybe in a couple of years I'll look to move on to something else like this. This is what I will be doing hopefully for the rest of my career working career right. Yeah, you know, it's it's something that hopefully maybe my son will want to take over one day if he wants to do something else that's great as well too. You know, it's it's not something that I thought I would be doing when I was younger. My parents cooked every night. It's something that I grew up seeing the enjoyment that cooking can bring. I guess it just evolved over time the increased notoriety from farmers markets I took over and we were doing three farmers markets now we're doing six you know, North Bend is not just like on the way to something. You got to come up here to change the name from George's to the North Bend bakery gives that kind of idea that when you're coming through North Bend, now you have an idea that the bakery is there going to farmers markets in Maple Valley and Mercer Island and Sammamish and Duvall and all throughout the eastside, it increases people's awareness that not only were there but the quality of the product that we have. Special events, birthdays, holidays, coming up skiing, coming up hiking, Rattlesnake Lake Mount Si of Snoqualmie falls, there's plenty of reasons for people to, especially with COVID. To get out of the city. And to get up outside in nature, there's there's plenty of excuses for people to come up to North Bend. So to just give people the idea that we're there only only helps the business. I would say for our listeners across the country and even across the world. If you ever visit Seattle, Washington, you got to visit the bakery and come to North Bend.

Aaron Raff: 17:44

If you've watched Twin Peaks, you know, the show it was it's from it was located in North Bend, that's Snoqualmie Falls. It's an iconic destination.

Michael Dugan: 17:52

So moving forward, who inspires you? Are there chefs? Are there people in your life that inspired you to go down this path?

Aaron Raff: 18:01

Wow, that's a great question. I don't have specific, like chefs or or bakers. Tom Douglas was definitely one of them. When living in Kentucky, my aunt bought me his cookbook of the year, which in I think it was 2012 he won the James Beard cookbook of the year. And I remember getting it going through it just admiring what he was able to accomplish. Because I was still at that small town bakery, it was always an aspiration to be on that creative level. I was talking about where you have a particular product, but there's 100 different ways you can do that particular product, it took a while with the help from culinary school with the flavor combinations it takes time. Nowadays, I hate to say it but it's like with Pinterest and Instagram and that availability. It's far less specific chefs or bakers and more like you've got kind of an idea of what you want to do. I'm a visual learner. So I really like the like I can that's I can see the pictures I can kind of see the end product because I know how to get there from the start to the to the end, but the end product I can kind of get a idea of piecing together what I have in my head to a final end product so maybe I'm like alright, alright falls coming up. You know, I really want to do like a like an orange cranberry something you know, and I feel like the most popular way to do that would probably be a muffin. Let me take a look here all right, instead of orange juice would be concentrated enough to give that orange flavor but it would water down the muffin to the point where it wouldn't be a muffin anymore it wouldn't turnout. How do I get that powerful orange flavor? Because I want a slight cranberry because of the tart. I don't want it a cranberry muffin with an orange I want more of an orange muffin with some cranberry. How do I generate that?

Michael Dugan: 20:54

you're balancing flavors

Aaron Raff: 20:57

Right sweetness then so I could go orange zest route where I'm getting I'm getting that powerful orange but I'm not getting the sweetness or do I go marmalade where I'm getting some of that zestness. I'm definitely adding sweetness to it because of the marmalade but it's not going to ruin the consistency of the muffin. That's where my my brain kind of goes and then I just hop on with one of these ideas and there's hundreds. You can kind of piece together more of what you're looking for and maybe you get an idea where you're like oh, I didn't think oh, maybe actually my clients how would like more of a scone because I already offer this in this and I know these do well. And I don't offer a muffin so maybe introducing a new product line would throw my customers off. Then I said I need to think about, like my customer base. And what I think they would like. There's kind of that that trial and error. You know, I also, I also like feedback from my bakers, at least my head baker, and my manager will tend to maybe do a taste test. We'll do a couple of different things, do a taste, and then maybe we'll be like, you know, we should probably add some sort of garnish on top of the muffin to make it look good. I've heard that, you know, almonds are really good with this and that. Well, you know, you don't want to limit your customers because of the nuts. So maybe we should go terminado sugar, where it adds that little crystalness on top, right, and it adds a little brownness. And nobody's gonna not get it because of an allergy. Yeah, there's all these little pivots that you got to think about.

Michael Dugan: 22:38

Yeah, it seems like that's kind of the fun part. You know, that's kind of the creative process, where you're kind of balancing things and you're visualizing. And it's funny, because my father was an engineer, and my mom was an artist. And when I went into the culinary arts, I didn't think I didn't realize that I was an artist, until my wife told me years later. It's such a wonderful place to be in that in that creative process of the flavors and, the colors and the concepts. It's fascinating. If we circle back to just a quick fork in the road, I remember earlier, we had talked before the show, and we were talking about your journey. And how when you came out of cooking school in Kentucky, you went down the path of baking, and you went to cooking school. How did that change come about? Did you feel that you really wanted to go into the baking side? Or were you still thinking about the cooking side.

Aaron Raff: 23:45

So I went into culinary school thinking, cooking. My parents, like I said, did a lot of cooking. My mom did some baking, my grandmother did some baking. But it was more like, we cooked dinner for two nights, tonight, and tomorrow, we'll have it again. And then the next night, we're cooking dinner. So it's like, you know, I'm seeing my parents cook three to four nights a week. That's more of where I thought my passion was. Almost all the way up until the end of culinary school where I got that experience in both restaurant and baking. I knew I liked my baking lab. Culinary school and the actual working force are two different worlds, you get a very low lying, broad perspective at culinary school, then when you actually pick whatever you're going to go into, that's when the learning really starts culinary school I did garmarget, I did international cooking. So like every week, we were doing a different country. I mean, I really thought that that's kind of where I thought I was going to be headed. And I guess I owe a sense of gratitude to the owner of the Bluegrass Baking Company, Jim. Because he really changed kind of kind of my perspective of the baking world. I just I just really enjoyed it. And I think maybe because my dad is a scientists that my brain just likes to be working in that sense of the math and science portion of cooking and baking than cooking, which I'm not trying to minimize cooking. A little bit of this a little bit of that you want to like this little you want to like that recipes are a little less important. Sometimes the higher you get, the more important they are. But from a generalist perspective, even at home, it's just kind of like however you like it baking is your ratios really need to be like this. Sure, you can add you you want an extra chocolate chip cookie, okay, you can add some like extra chocolate chips or whatever. The ratio of leavener to flour to liquids needs to be kind of like right in there. I think I really liked that. I'm an early riser, and I don't sleep just from my human biological clock it just worked really well. I really liked getting up at that hour getting my day started. There's just something about it. And before owner, I was getting off at 11am. I was done with my day. I put in a full eight hours. I felt accomplished and I had the rest of my day. Most people aren't even on their lunch breaks. I'm done with my day. Sure I got four hours or five hours of sleep. That's all I need. And whether that's hereditary or whatever, I can't explain it. I just don't need a lot of sleep. I think all of that was kind of lining up. I think you got to think future. I think being in the restaurant industry, with some of my past history was not going to do me very well down the road when I'm getting out at, you know, midnight, one in the morning. You're hanging out with your co workers afterwards you're having a couple drinks, you're doing whatever, like that's the restaurant like world, you know that that's tough, where you're going in at four, you know, three 4pm to prep for night service. And then you're not getting home till the wee hours in the morning. And then you're sleeping. Right? So you're not you're not there. I didn't want to be that person. And for my family life, you no baking. Yeah, you get up early, but like I'm around the day, you know, I can pick the kids up, I can go to the practices, I can do whatever, you know, I can go to the grocery store, I can do some of the laundry. And sure I'm going to sleep a little bit earlier, maybe like nine, you know, something like that. That's okay. I think there was a summary of things and why I steered towards baking. I'm a pretty determined person I like to learn, and I'm motivated. So I knew that once I made a decision which route I was going to go, I knew that that I was going to stick with it. And then I was going to do my best. I think it's worked out. It's hard work. But I knew that.

Michael Dugan: 28:06

Yeah, it's very hard work. My sister in law, it's amazing. I went to culinary school. So I have a lot of respect for you. It's where you really get your roots, I think, and my sister in law, she is a passionate baker. She follows blog, she follows Chefs, it's been her passion for forever. She's an editor, I'm amazed at what she creates, if I was to give her advice to look into starting a bakery. What kind of advice might you give someone that's really passionate about baking.

Aaron Raff: 28:41

And wanting to own their own bussiness? Yeah.

Michael Dugan: 28:45

And wanting to and wanting to start their own business.

Aaron Raff: 28:49

You don't understand the sacrifice that you have to make until you're in it. I could, I could say, till I'm blue in the face that it's a sacrifice. But you don't know until you're doing it. And like I said, getting there at 1am and leaving a farmers market at 7pm. There's just that understanding you either make it or you don't. And you you have to have that healthy level of fear, I want to say where fear is an extremely driving force. As long as you have that healthy level of fear, it will continue that drive where there is no option. I have put all my eggs into one basket. I have bought a bakery, I have taken out a loan. I have moved from Lynwood to North Bend this is it, there is no other route. And so not only are you doing something that you love, it's the only option, you kind of have to have that mentality where you get a call and you know, midnight, and you're your morning baker is sick, or quote unquote sick. Right? You're in that industry, where it's like if you've got, especially with COVID, if you if you're cooking, if you text me or call me and you tell me you've got XY and Z, you have to stay home. Who whose responsibility is it to then fill that position? Well, there's only one person, right? I mean, there's been days where I've had multiple people front and back call out. Right, so now I'm wearing three hats at once. I'm the owner, I'm baking, and I'm gonna shift up front. Right, and so you're trying to manage all of that, while putting on a on a smile, being as friendly and customer service as you expect out of your co workers. Right. It took me a little while to to be able to wear all of all of those hats at once. It comes with the territory. I think it's paying off. We are we're growing the brand more people are coming in, whether that has to do with the consistency that we're trying to put out whether that has to do with COVID. I'll take it because there are a lot of struggling businesses right now. It's it's a sad, it's a sacrifice, you'll learn the learning to run a business, unless you've done business school or something along those lines. You just gotta, you just gotta have to learn on the fly there. We can tell you that you need to look into certain things, right? Labor costs should be a certain percentage, right? If you're in the 30s You're doing a great job. You know, your cost of goods, you know if you can keep that in the 20s You're doing a great job. Right? So I can give you benchmarks on on percentages of where you would like to be. And if you are there, then you will succeed. Math tells you that sure you run into, you know, broken water pipes underneath the foundation of a building, right, and to repair that. You almost want to squirrel for knowing that when something comes up, because it will, you can pay for it. Because the only way to keep that consistency going and day in day out is the owners sacrifice my sacrifice, knowing that whatever hole needs to be plugged, I'm it. And I can do it. Right anything from mixing doughnuts, to frying donuts, to making production in the back to running the oven, to opening the shop to closing the shop and running the shop. I can do it all. And I can plug any hole. And so there's a sense of relief, at the same time, of that healthy sense of fear. You can plug any hole at any time, the business will keep going. If I don't know how to make donuts. And I got my morning baker calling out what do I do, I just I have to hope to rely on somebody else to help me out. To call them to wake them up to come in to get the day started. Or you just get up and you get the day started. You don't have to worry about any of that. And that's where I'm at.

Michael Dugan: 33:05

Aaron, I remember I remember those things. I really remember those things. I was in the restaurant business for 10 years. I had this passion and this desire to own a restaurant. And I had this vision around it. And I know I know how difficult it is a lot of people were steering me in the other direction. Eventually I left because there was a drive by shooting where I was in a restaurant and I was the Asst Manager. I had to calm everybody else down and then I had a breakdown when they went in the next day. and said something happened last night. I was just completely in shock. And a week later I gave notice and she looked at me and she said, This is not for you. But to be honest, I miss it so much. I miss the passion. There are some really great takeways to being in the business. And that's what the podcast is all about. I just want to ask you a couple fun questions, and we'll take it out. What three desserts I want to bring from your bakery to a desert island?

Aaron Raff: 39:57

That's, that's a fun question.

Michael Dugan: 40:02

I know.

Aaron Raff: 40:02

Okay, so one would be one of our fruit pies. Our fruit pies are vegan. So there used palm oil shortening and our pie crust. So you would be able to hang on to one of those pies unrefrigerated for at least a few days. So that would at least help on the deserted island aspect of the question, but the fruit pies are extremely flaky they're really good .Our apple pie is phenomenal we do both a double cross and kind of like a dutch where we kind of have the streusel open top. We also have cherry and blackberry for the fruit pies. Those those are really good. You would have to at least get half dozen to a dozen maple bars. For pastry, I would say bread we've been doing Holla which is a jewish egg bread kinda like a brioche it's braided. We usually do them on Fridays for the weekend. I would say that would probably do really well on the deserted island aspect.

Michael Dugan: 41:06

Okay, would you care to share any funny story or kitchen faux pas that you've had in your career recently? Or at any time?

Aaron Raff: 41:16

That's an interesting question. A lot of the things are just kind of day to day, friend conversations that you have with comrades, you kind of get that, camaraderie in the bakery, where you shoot the, you know what. I'd say a lot is the day to day stories with co workers who are like part of your family. I would say a lot of the stories would tend to either sway towards that . Or honestly as malicious as it sounds kind of like your burn stories. It's unavoidable and everybody has one. Thier is one that really sticks out in my mind. I'm working on a on a grill and I'm making Carmel, I've dumped in the sugar and I've set the metal bowl down on like the shelf in front of the grill. I'm whisking, and I'm pouring in the cream, and I'm whisking and I guess somehow the bowl had rotated right before I went to go pick it up. I had an entire sear mark from grabbing the bowl all the way across, the top my hand in my palm, just the whole line right from the bowl. I could come up with 20 different stories of for our marks and all sorts of stuff from stuff like that happening. It's one of those things that I make aware to my employees who come in who start frying. You shouldn't be afraid of the fryer and that you will get burned. It's going to happen and if you can get over that fear you're going to be a much more confident baker. Whether you work the oven, the fryer this that you're going to get burned. Especially in the restaurant industry I'm sure the forearms from all of the pans and reaching over you're working six different pans at one time so I've heard stories their to.

Michael Dugan: 43:19

My fingerips were all basically burned. I had no feeling on my fingertips for over a year and people don't realize it says it's a sacrifice you make but it's a passion that you have and it's a trade off. I'll share a quick one with you off the record. I worked in a restaurant for a while and I was cleaning the fryer. We had whaler night and whaler night was all you can eat halibut fish and chips. I was the head guy. I cleaned the fryer and and taken all the stuff out of the fryer and I left the nozzle open. When I poured the oil back in the hot oil went all over the floor. We had to take everybody out and steam clean the back of the kitchen. Because no one could walk around. These things happen and I didnt get fired. The last thing that I wanted to ask you. Do you have any special message you'd like to share and how can we help you?

Aaron Raff: 44:23

Honestly to help grow. I wanted your listeners to be aware that we're up here in Northbend. We have an Instagram and Facebook so people can start to get an idea of what we do and what we're capable of doing through our social media. This day and age social media is so powerful. A message that we can convey is I'm just a hard work and baker trying to succeed. At this small business bakery obviously COVID will come and go. Just appreciate even if it's not for me it's it's a great time to some support small business, small local business, wherever you live. We all get accustomed to doing the Costco and the Amazon thing and I'm guilty of it too. How we can do our part especially during this pandemic is just support local. Whether it's a little less convenient, or going more out of your way. Not going through the drive thru or whatever the small sacrifice might be. It'll go a long way for for those businesses to just to just show that the support is there. That's that's kind of what that all I can ask for. Honestly we'll do our best to do our part to continue to pump out just quality product consistently day in and day out. All l can ask is that the community help support us?

Michael Dugan: 45:51

And how can we find you? I know you're in North Bend, but how can we find you? I know you're in North Bend, but can you describe how people can get there?

Aaron Raff: 45:59

A lot of people know where the Premium Outlets are in North Bend, because there's a big outlet mall there. So if you just keep going past the outlet mall, two stoplights, you're going to hit North Bend way which is the main drag right there. Where Tweeds Diner is which is kind of the main diner on Twin Peaks. So a lot of people kind of know that as an iconic staple right there. I'm two doors down from Tweeds Diner on the main North Bend way. So beautiful view of Mount Si. I have a bench and an outdoor spot to sit. It's a great location.

Michael Dugan: 46:38

It's also a great place to take a stroll and just

Aaron Raff: 46:38

Yeah, it's beautiful. walk in downtown. Right next to the bakery.

Michael Dugan: 46:47

Aaron I want to say Thank you for coming on the show being part of Voice4Chefs and thanks for sharing your voice with the world.

Aaron Raff: 46:56

I appreciate it Michael I really do