BUTTERCREAM CHARM
Watch live demonstrations of our industry-leading Vemag Dough Dividers
n Gently handles dough
n Unmatched scaling accuracy
n Precisely scales a wide range of dough portions
n Produces a variety of crumb structures
n Handles absorption rates from 45% to 95%
n No divider oil needed
n Fast, easy changeovers
Vemag 500 Dough Divider
This chocolate showstopper
among the best-selling buttercream cakes at Pasticceria Gelataria Italiana in
See page 10 to learn more about trends in buttercream.
BY COLLEEN CROSS
SUPPORT FROM THE BAKING COMMUNITY
It warmed our hearts to see the baking industry and so many passionate and, in some cases, downright giddy, professionals talk baking for two aroma-filled days. Thank you for the warm welcome, Montreal!
Bakery Showcase welcomed more than 2,000 bakery owners, operators and their teams, manufacturers, suppliers, experts and college-level baking and pastry students April 14-15 at the Palais des congrès.
The annual baking industry trade show and conference featured more than 140 exhibiting companies presenting baking-specific ingredients, equipment, supplies and services. This year’s busy event set a record for the Montreal edition of the Showcase, that is traditionally held in the city every four years.
I’m not sure we at Bakers Journal fully appreciated how rare an opportunity Showcase is for professional bakers and entrepreneurs to talk with others who are equally passionate about their products and businesses and face similar challenges (see page 17 about our frank panel “The Resilient Bakery” hosted so ably and with sensitivity by Elisabeth Brasseur of Farinart and the BAC).
Seeing entrepreneurs like Gabriela Gomez, whom we met while attending the official opening mid-floor. Gomez lit up when asked about Zergo Café, her business set to open soon in Sherbrooke, Que., and told us she was grateful for the chance to source products and meet other bakery owners.
}Surrounding yourself with your baking community will remind you that help and support are often a phone call or text away.
Among many highlights of Showcase was the first-ever Coupe de boulangerie du Canada – Edition Quebecoise; technical demonstrations with useful takeaways for bakeries looking for product and marketing inspiration; educational sessions on such hot topics of regenerative farming and its implications for bakeries; the Canadian Pizza Chef of the Year Pizza competition; and more. You can read about and see photos of some of these sessions in these pages and online at bakersjournal.com and baking.ca.
The best part of this and other events like it were the conversations. Quiet chats informed us of an initiative to make products using canary seed, a bakery helping women and gender-diverse people facing challenges learn skills and better their lives, a planned attempt to make the world’s largest Nanaimo bar (since achieved – congratulations, VIU!) and day-to-day living as a bakery owner, which can some days means putting one foot in front of the other. Surrounding yourself with your baking community will remind you that help and support are often a phone call or text away.
The Baking Association of Canada presented this key industry event in partnership with Le Conseil de Boulangerie Québec and many dedicate sponsors, supporters and volunteers.
The next Bakery Showcase will take place in Toronto May 3-4, 2026. See you there! / BJ
JUNE 2025 | VOL. 85, NO. 3
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BAC Events!
ATLANTIC
BAC ATLANTIC
CHAPTER ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT
June 23, 2025
Lakeside Golf & Country Club, 1896 NB-134, Lakeville, NB E1H 1A7
FARMER-MILLERBAKER MONCTON
Oct. 9, 2025
New Brunswick Community College, 1234 Mountain Rd., Moncton, NB E1C 2T6
ALBERTA
FARMER-MILLERBAKER @ NAIT
EDMONTON
June 17, 2025
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, 11762 106 St., Edmonton, AB T5G 2R1
ONTARIO
FARMER-MILLERBAKER LONDON
Aug. 26, 2025
Fanshawe College, 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., London, ON N5Y 5R6
ONTARIO CHAPTER NIGHT AT THE RACES
Sept. 25, 2025
Woodbine Racetrack, 555 Rexdale Blvd., Etobicoke, ON M9W 5L2
BAKERY SHOWCASE 2026
May 3-4, 2026
Toronto Congress Centre, 650 Dixon Rd., Etobicoke, ON M9W 1J1
Interested in helping organize and plan these events?
The BAC local chapters are run by a dedicated team of volunteers. Please consider getting involved in future planning.
Contact our chapter chairs:
B.C.: Jesse Lamb Jesse.Lamb@islandcitybaking.com
Ontario: Kate Tomic k.tomic@caldic.com
Atlantic: Mike Raftus Mike.Raftus@ardentmills.com
BRITISH COLUMBIA
BAC B.C. CHAPTER ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT
June 18, 2025
Newlands Golf & Country Club, 21025 48 Ave., Langley, BC
BRITISH COLUMBIA CHAPTER – HUMAN FACTORS APPROACH TO SAFETY AND INCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS
Sept. 10, 2025
Caldic, 1360 Cliveden Ave., Delta, BC V3M 6G4
BRITISH COLUMBIA CHAPTER – BAKER’S DEN: BC EDITION
Sept. 18, 2025
Island City Baking
Frozen Dough Division, Unit #108, 8289 N. Fraser Way, Burnaby, BC V3N 0B9
Alberta and Prairies: Martin Barnett inf0@baking.ca
Quebec: Dimitri Fraeys dimitrifraeys@conseiltaq.com
BRITISH COLUMBIA CHAPTER –RETURN TO WORK OBLIGATIONS AND THE ROLE OF THE SUPERVISOR
Nov. 18, 2025
Snow Cap Enterprises, 5698 Trapp Ave., Burnaby, BC V3N 5G4
¦ industry news ¦
briefly | Mon Paris Pâtisserie expands to the Olympic Village, Fritsch launches expedited spare parts shipping in Canada | for more news in the baking world, check out our website, bakersjournal.com
Winners announced in first Bakery Cup of Canada – Quebec Edition
Some of Quebec’s top bakers gathered for a fierce but friendly competition celebrating the best in baguettes, croissants, Viennoiseries and specialty breads in the first Bakery Cup of Canada – Quebec Edition at Montreal Bakery Showcase April 14-15.
The Baking Association of Canada, in partnership with the Conseil de Boulangerie Québec (CBQ), hosted the first Bakery Cup of Canada – Quebec Edition (Coupe de boulangerie du Canada – Édition Québecoise). Industry professionals from bakeries (retail, wholesale, commercial, in-store), grocery, pizzerias, restaurants and food-service outlets gathered to do business, network at the annual businessto-business baking event.
Julien Meunier (right) and Simon Dubois were the grand winners at the first Bakery Cup of Canada – Quebec Edition competition.
Grand prize winners Julien Menier and Simon Dubois earned the title of Champion of the Coupe de Boulangerie du Canada
2025, a trophy and an official competition jacket.
Here are the official results in all categories:
• Grand winners: Julien Meunier and Simon Dubois
• Baguette: Florent Lehmann and Felix Jeandot
• Croissant: Guillaume Chazal and James Gigantone
• Specialty bread: Florent Lehmann and Felix Jeandot
• Custom viennoiserie: Julien Meunier and Simon Dubois
The competition, supported by partnering industry suppliers Rondo (Platinum Sponsor) and Les Margarines Thibault (Gold Sponsor) and through in-kind contributions by Equipements Boulangerie Canada, serves to celebrate the craftsmanship of artisan bakers while fostering innovation in the field.
Rhw Bakery Cup will next be held at Toronto Bakery Showcase May 3-4, 2026.
IBIE attendees to get full access to bakery education program
Attendees of the International Baking Industry Exposition, known as IBIE, will have full access to IBIEducate, a comprehensive education program for the baking industry.
The conference and trade show is scheduled for Sept. 14-17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
A major event for the baking industry, IBIE unites professionals from every corner of the grain-based food industry for four days of learning and networking.
For the first time, organizers said in a news release, registration includes full access to IBIEducate, the expo’s comprehensive education program. Attendees may participate in their choice of more than 100 sessions, workshops, and demonstrations – covering essential industry topics such as production efficiency, ingredient innovations, and retail strategies. The program offers practical, relevant learning experiences.
According to IBIE organizers, the 2022 edition of IBIE saw a 25-per-cent increase in baker attendance and drew nearly 20,000 baking industry professionals from around the world. International buyers accounted for more than a quarter of participants, setting a record for global baking engagement.
The IBIE World Bread Awards USA will be part of IBIE’s Artisan Village, which includes live demonstrations, tastings and networking with top artisan bakers from around the world.
AB Mauri North America will present its Rockin’ Pint concert series featuring 1980s rock-and-roll band Wang Chung and an after-party set from baker and television personality Duff Goldman and his band Foie Grock. The concert will take place in the West Hall Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center on the opening day of the Expo.
For more information and to register, visit bakingexpo.com.
PHOTO: GABRIELA AGUILERA, BAKERS JOURNAL (TOP); ILLUSTRATION: BRIAN FRAY (BOTTOM)
Rolando and Francesca Morandin collaborate with Viva Panettone on original recipes
Viva Panettone has collaborated with Rolando Morandin and his daughter Francesca Morandin to create four new panettone recipes in the Montreal bakery’s workshop.
From April 14 to 16, the father-daughter duo and the bakers at Viva Panettone, showcased the results of their joint effort to an audience of about 30 bakery and gastronomy professionals in Montreal.
Rolando Morandin brings over 40 years of experience and is one of the great Italian masters of artisanal panettone, Viva Panettone said in a news release. He is an expert in natural leavening and technical precision.
Francesca Morandin, a technologist specializing in fermentation and natural leavening, is working to evolve traditional recipes into modern and sustainable creations.
Viva Panettone is an artisanal bakery specializing in panettone.
The workshop was led by culinary directors Éric Goeury and Anthony Daniele.
The new panettones will be available for the Christmas season while the vegan panettone, made without eggs or dairy, is
Commercial Bakeries acquires Hollandia Bakeries and Good Food Company
Commercial Bakeries Corp. announced it has acquired Hollandia Bakeries Ltd. and the Good Food Company (together known as Hollandia Bakeries), manufacturer of soft-baked cookies.
Dan Simile, president of Hollandia Bakeries, said the company expects significant benefits from the acquisition, including increased management support and investment.
Founded in 1954, Hollandia operates a
baking facility in Mount Brydges, Ont., with multiple cookie manufacturing and packaging lines.
Commercial Bakeries is owned by Graham Partners, a private investment firm targeting advanced manufacturing companies. This marks the second add-on acquisition for Commercial since Graham acquired it in September 2023. Commercial Bakeries acquired Imagine Baking in May 2024.
Quebec’s Farinart enters baking mixes market
Farinart, a specialist in grain and seed processing and blending for the baking industry, recently entered the baking mixes market with the opening of a dedicated production site located in Saint-Cyrille, Que.
The plant is equipped with an industrial dry blender and flexible packaging machinery for various formats (400-gram, two-kilogram and 22.7-kilogram). This new facility will be used to produce a wide range of customized baking mixes with standardized quality.
This expansion will allow Farinart to tap
into new revenue streams, the company said in a news release.
“As the baking mixes sector is predicted to continue to grow, it seemed only natural to embrace this trend and strategically enter the market,” said Elisabeth Brasseur, Farinart’s vice-president of sales and innovation, in the release.
“We see a rising demand for locally sourced products, and we are well positioned to meet this need, as we support and work closely with farmers across Quebec and Canada.”
a first for the company and will become part of Viva Panettone’s permanent collection starting in December. The other three recipes – candied chestnut, threedough and zabaglione, will be released as limited editions for the holidays.
Vegan chocolate and candied orange panettone is light with stringy crumb and delicate aromas.
Candied chestnut panettone, inspired by the Italian winter, is tender with fragrant candied chestnuts, blended with a chestnut cream and finished with a subtle hint of rum.
“Three-dough” panettone, a signature recipe by Rolando Morandin, features a triple-fermentation structure that creates an airy crumb and depth of flavour.
Zabaglione panettone, a twist on the traditional version, is creamy and festive with a light zabaglione filling.
Ontario takes steps to improve free trade within Canada
The Ontario government has introduced new legislation that, if passed, will help promote growth within the province’s economy.
The Protect Ontario Through Free Trade Within Canada Act seeks to attract investments, create jobs, reduce trade barriers across Canada and cut costly red tape.
Ontario’s plan includes allowing workers from across Canada to work in the province by removing barriers and simplifying the process. It also proposes establishing a “Buy Ontario, Buy Canadian” day held annually on the last Friday in June..
The bill calls for the removal of all party-specific exceptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement with the goal of creating a more level playing field across provinces.
Ontario is also launching a $50-million program designed to help businesses invest in reaching interprovincial markets, grow new customers and bring supply chains back to Canada, and is signing memoranda of understanding with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to strengthen interprovincial trade.
BY DIANE CHIASSON
EIGHT STEPS TO HELP YOUR BAKERY GEAR UP FOR THE SUMMER SEASON
Incorporating fresh fruits into your products and tapping into summer activities can boost revenues
Running a successful bakery operation requires hard work, determination and long hours. The summer season is just around the corner, and baked good sales are beginning to rise! Promoting your bakery in new and different ways this summer will help your business grow and allow you to show your fresh and delicious baked goods to more customers. Summer yields a wide variety of fresh fruits, often locally sourced, that can be incorporated into your bakery items, and summer activities like picnics and barbecues will lend to additional revenue for your store-baked goods. Here are eight easy steps to help your bakery business gear up for summer.
}2. SHOW OFF YOUR PRODUCTS
Many customers eat with their eyes. Showcase your bakery products in an artful way to enhance your sales. The best way to attract attention to your store is to display your baked goods creatively throughout your bakery and in your front windows. Draw in your customers in the store by creating beautiful, unique window displays using colourful and fresh
A very effective way to boost bakery sales and keep customers engaged is by offering seasonal and limited-time products.
1. EMBRACE SUMMER HOLIDAYS
Summer is full of holidays and celebrations, from Father’s Day to Pride celebration and to Canada Day in July. Partner with LGBTQ + influencers in your community to showcase your bakery as a welcoming place to celebrate. A very effective way to boost bakery sales and keep customers engaged is by offering seasonal and limited-time products. Create bakery products that showcase fresh fruit items that are at the peak of their season. Strawberry pies, raspberry chocolate cakes, peach cheesecakes, blueberry galettes, passionfruit tarts, blackberry and banana bread puddings, peach tarts, strawberry shortcake cups and pineapple loaf cakes are perfect for summer. Don’t forget to make a special cake tailored to dads on Father’s Day. Make sure your logo is featured prominently on all your packaging to increase brand awareness.
props. Eye-catching displays will encourage people to come inside and take a closer look. Offer convenience by pre-packaging items for patrons on the go at your register.
3. SPICE UP YOUR DISPLAYS
Having a well-organized and clean counter and an exciting display is as important as the baked goods you are selling. Bakery counters and displays have the potential to showcase the appeal of your bakery products and draw customers in to make that final purchase. Use fresh blooming flowers and budding leaves inside your cold cases and in the windows of your bakery.
4. CREATE HEALTHY FOOD ALTERNATIVES
Consumers are becoming more and more interested in the availability of healthier options. With food allergies on the rise and many people pursuing alternative
diets, it is perhaps a good time to expand your menu to reach a broader audience. You could start with a few low-calorie options and some gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan bakery items. Selling bite-sized versions of your desserts allows your customers to try more things and have fun. By offering healthier variations in your breads, cakes, pastries and morning goods, you could entice newer healthconscious customers into your bakery.
5. GIVE YOUR EMPLOYEES NAME TAGS
Adding name tags for all your employees can significantly enhance professionalism, improve customer service and help people recognize your bakery. Name tags, especially those incorporating your bakery logo, create a professional image and strengthen brand visibility. Name tags will provide a simple way for your employees to be easily identified and make introductions smoother. They can also contribute to a more welcoming work environment. Name tags will allow your employees to quickly identify each other, fostering a sense of community and improving internal communication. Seeing their names displayed on a name tag can boost an employee’s confidence and make them feel valued.
6. PERFECT YOUR OUTDOOR SEATING
Outdoor eating is a major draw for guests when the weather warms up. If you have space, set up a few tables outside your bakery so customers can enjoy a cup of coffee and a pastry in the morning or a cold beverage and a slice of cake in the afternoon. By making your storefront patio cozy and inviting, you will attract interest from people walking by who may not have noticed you in the past. Try to create a welcoming and comfortable outdoor space with sophisticated furniture, shade umbrellas and proper lighting.
Sunflower kernels are:
available raw or roasted
an excellent alternative to nuts
mild in flavour and add a pleasant crunch to food
a good source of fibre, Vitamin E, zinc and folate
ideal for a variety of foods including: bakery products, granola, snack bars, salad toppings and plant-based foods
KAREN BARR
BUTTERCREAM CHARM
Buttercream cakes are on everyone’s lips these days. What is the fascination? What are some of the specific trends and flavour profiles customers crave? Two North American pastry chefs share what makes buttercream cakes popular at their bakeries.
BALANCED CAKES
At Pasticceria Gelateria Italiana in Ottawa, awardwinning pastry chef and shop co-owner Joe Calabro makes some of the city’s most beautiful buttercream cakes. Calabro recalls the wedding cake trends he has watched over the last 45-plus years of business.
“At first, everyone wanted
fruit cakes decorated with royal icing for their wedding. Then, it was all about rolled fondant. Now, customers are asking for buttercream cakes.”
Calabro prefers an American-style buttercream for his cakes but with a twist. Using butter and icing sugar, he skips adding milk or cream, favouring simple syrup instead.
“It’s smooth. At room temperature, it’s softer than traditional, classic buttercream. It’s rich in flavour without overdoing it with sugar.”
At this European-style bakery, the cake base is always a Genoise sponge, either vanilla or chocolate. “This type of cake needs a simple syrup. I like to add a little alcohol to give it a bit more flavour. We use rum, Kirsch,
Grand Marnier or amaretto.”
When decorating buttercream cakes, he says, “I don’t like to see a cake with a half inch of buttercream on it. That’s too much. Everything must be balanced: cake, filling and buttercream.”
Calabro likes to suggest Magdalena Cake as a neutralflavoured cake for weddings. It is built into four layers of vanilla sponge cake and brushed with a simple syrup or rum syrup.
“This is my favourite cake, and I like to suggest it to everyone. It contains alternating layers of vanilla and chocolate pastry cream. There is no need to choose between the two flavours.”
Customers can select any cake on the menu, and Calabro will custom design it
for the special day. Upcoming requests include a lemon layer cake filled with lemon curd and a black forest cake. Each has requested “naked cakes” with just a hint of buttercream and fresh flowers. Calabro points out that many customers also take a more fanciful approach with buttercream cakes featuring a plethora of hand-piped roses.
Customers also request buttercream cakes for special occasions, such as milestone birthdays, baby showers, baptisms, graduations, engagement parties and retirement parties.
The main showcase is stocked with buttercream cakes and slices every day. The Cappuccino Torte pays homage to Calabro’s Italian
Buttercream cakes are bestsellers at Pasticceria Gelateria Italiana in Ottawa.
PHOTO: SULIMAN CHADIRJI
heritage. Layers of vanilla sponge are brushed with chocolate syrup before being layered with mocha and chocolate pastry creams. Next, it’s frosted with mocha buttercream. Another variation is the Mocha Torte, which uses a vanilla sponge as a base. It’s a hit with a triple coffee jolt featuring coffee syrup, mousseline and buttercream.
The Hazelnut Cake starts with fluffy layers of vanilla sponge infused with hazelnut syrup and layered with hazelnut mousseline. It’s frosted with hazelnut buttercream and edged with chopped hazelnuts. More buttercream is piped decoratively on top. The cake is then drizzled with Belgian chocolate and completed with whole hazelnuts. For something fruity, try the Lemon Raspberry Torte. Layers of lemon-syrup-infused vanilla sponge cake filled with lemon or raspberry pastry cream are frosted with real vanilla buttercream.
Over holidays and special dates such as Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day, the showcase is heavy with fancy buttercream cakes piped with floral bouquets and ribbons.
Over Christmas, yule logs are ordered well in advance of the holiday cheer. The Vanilla Yule Log is made with vanilla sponge, raspberry jam and snow-white vanilla buttercream. The Chocolate Yule Log has whipped chocolate ganache inside and chocolate buttercream on the outside.
FLORAL-FORWARD CAKES
Los Angeles native Heather Wong opened her own company, Flouring, in the city
}before refrigerating. “Flowers are nature’s sprinkles. I like using pansies, violas, marigolds and bachelor’s buttons for the vibrant colours.”
Wong uses Italian buttercream exclusively. “I don’t like frosting that is too sweet, although the first Italian buttercream recipe I used had a bit too much butter, and it glistened.” That wasn’t exactly what she was looking for. Through testing, Wong finally found the right balance between butter and sugar,
‘I don’t like to see a cake with a half inch of buttercream on it. . . . Everything must be balanced: cake, filling and buttercream.’
–Joe Calabro, PGI, Ottawa
in the summer of 2020. While Flouring initially started with pop-ups around Los Angeles and COVID-19 curbside pickup, it is in a lovely lilac-painted bakery in Chinatown today.
Flouring is a play on words from two angles. While the most essential baking ingredient is in the name, it also represents her signature floral-forward cakes. Wong uses fresh-pulled flower petals, which she presses into buttercream-masked cakes
with a hint of salt. She remembers a bakery disaster where she accidentally used salted butter in her strawberry buttercream. It was too late to scrap, so the cakes were sold using creative marketing. “I called the cake salted strawberry. People loved it! I still occasionally get orders for it,” she says with a laugh.
Wong says the secret to working with Italian buttercream is overnight refrigeration. “Letting it rest overnight allows the
buttercream to settle better and makes it more stable, especially when working with multi-layered cakes.”
All the cakes at Flouring are made with a butter cake base. As for the ratio of cake to buttercream, Wong doesn’t like a lot of frosting, especially between the layers. Each cake has a specified weight of buttercream to keep presentation and costs consistent.
Regarding buttercream cake flavours, Wong has two favourites: the Black Sesame cake and the Passionfruit cake. While growing up, her grandmother made her Tang Yuan, a Chinese homestyle dessert. Pure comfort food, the dessert is filled with black sesame paste. This was the inspiration for Flouring’s Black Sesame cake.
Japanese roasted and pulverized sesame seeds are added to the batter and buttercream to make the cake. It’s layered with Rooted Faire’s Black Sesame Crunchy Butter, created by local Los Angeles entrepreneurs. Finally, the cake is decorated with meringue and an elegant 23-karat-gold leaf.
At Flouring, customers favour the Lemon Lavender Marble cake featuring lemon cake batter marbled with French lavender cake batter before baking.
EXPLORING KEY TRENDS
CHATGPT DIDN’T WRITE THIS… BUT IT COULD SAVE YOU A LOT OF TIME
When AI adoption specialist Hugo Lemieux-Fournier was asked to create a presentation for a Bakery Showcase audience about the applications of artificial intelligence for the baking industry, he did what has become second nature for many inside and outside the AI space – he asked an AI tool, in this case, OpenAI’s DeepResearch. The tool listed a variety of potential applications, including cake decorating, quality control and waste prevention.
Lemieux-Fournier, AI adoption lead at Quebec City-based AI consultancy Vooban, put the potential of AI tools on display. Since it was first released in November 2022, ChatGPT’s capabilities have increased by leaps and bounds, from writing poetry based on simple prompts to parsing complex data and creating original animations. “It’s evolving so fast that even I have trouble following,” he said. “Someone will start talking about a new model and say, ‘Oh, you don’t know about this? It came out at noon today.’ ”
He noted that Canada was still dealing with a stubborn labour shortage, estimating the number of unfilled jobs at 127,000 in Quebec alone. “Imagine having to find employees for repetitive jobs in that environment.”
}“It’s important to really know where your flour and your grain are coming from, to understand how it was grown and how that can impact what you’re using it for.”
–
He encouraged attendees to “develop an AI-first mindset” and explore the potential uses of ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, ClaudeAI, Canva and similar tools, particularly for administrative tasks. Predictive AI can draw on historical data to predict future sales trends and maintenance needs. Generative AI tools can synthesize or pinpoint data in uploaded text documents
Tannis Axten, farmer
or spreadsheets, create and operate customer service chatbots, write simple code, do online shopping, summarize emails, record and summarize meetings and even lay the groundwork for renovation plans. “It’s just like having employees,” Lemieux-Fournier summarized.
The more data the tool is able to draw from – from the Internet, from past
queries or from context included with the writer’s current request – the more detailed an answer it can provide. “A few weeks ago, someone asked me to conduct research on the use of AI in a very specific context,” he said. “Normally, I would have asked one of the PhDs on my team to spend about 40 hours doing research. I asked [ChatGPT DeepResearch] to do the research for me. In 30 minutes, I had 95 per cent of the results I expected. Anything you can do manually, AI can help.”
AI can help bakeries meet common challenges and be creative. Potentially it
Tali Remennik of Granularity gave bakers advice on acting on trends: “Consider launching a single product inspired by a trend and adding related options if and when it catches on.”
can adapt daily production to actual demand to avoid both product shortages and waste at the end of the day. Generative AI can be used to imagine new flavour combinations or original decorations.
There were a few caveats to LemieuxFournier’s AI-evangelist message: the tools are not yet a reliable substitute for human creativity. “For recipe generation, it’s sometimes extraordinary and sometimes not great.” The models can “hallucinate,” drawing inaccurate conclusions from qualitative data. The data they draw from may also have mistakes in it. “Models are becoming more and more powerful, but we must keep in mind that the models are there to support us, and that the expert remains the human who uses them,” he concluded.
FARMER HAS FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON FLOUR SOURCING
Saskatchewan farmer Tannis Axten created a buzz with a presentation on regenerative agriculture at Bakery Showcase, giving participants an introduction to the concept and making the case that using sustainably produced flour
from pollinator-friendly fields could improve the quality of baked goods and be a selling point in an era of climateconscious, location-conscious consumer choice.
Axten is a former biology teacher who now farms with her husband, Derek Axten, in Minton, Sask. They grow buckwheat, rye, spelt, Desi chickpeas and several varieties of wheat and sell directly to consumers and businesses. “We’re [in] a very dry climate, and what’s really led us down our journey of regenerative agriculture is trying to conserve moisture,” she said. “The most disheartening thing is when you’re waiting and waiting for a rain and it comes down and it hits your soil and runs away.”
Regenerative agriculture is centred on topsoil regeneration and increasing biodiversity. “It really is a journey of continuous learning, adaptation and improvement,” Axten said. “If you’re an organic farmer, this might mean practices like reducing tillage, adding more diversity, more cover crops. If you’re a conventional farm, it might be… using less synthetic inputs or chemicals. It might be more
[crop] diversity. We have been doing regenerative practices on our farm for almost 20 years now, before regenerative was even a term, and we’re continuously learning, improving and adapting,” explained Axten, who put her biology background to use learning about the intricacies of the soil food web. “If you have dirt, you have no life…but if you’ve got soil, you have a functioning ecosystem. As farmers, we really need to focus on keeping that ecosystem alive so [it] can really thrive.” For the Axten farm, this has meant maintaining no-till farming, using compost to encourage micro-organisms to thrive in the soil and surrounding fields with beds of perennials to attract pollinators. Their practices and the resulting flour have gotten enthusiastic reviews from individual consumers and from a Regina bakery; they have since added a flour mill to sell flour direct to consumers and gotten certified regenerative with Colorado-based agency Regenify. Tannis Axten has joined the board of nonprofit Regeneration Canada.
“If you’re making food for others, you really care about quality, flavour,
25_003458_Bakers_Journal_JUN_CN Mod: April 1, 2025 12:34 PM Print: 04/25/25 page 1 v2.5
nutrition – and that’s where it’s important to really know where your flour and your grain are coming from, to understand how it was grown and how that can impact what you’re using it for,” she said. She encouraged participants to connect with Regeneration Canada to learn more about regenerative farming and get in touch with farmers and suppliers who use or encourage regenerative practices.
MAKING THE MOST OF VIRAL FOOD TRENDS
From a distance, viral food trends on TikTok and Instagram may seem to rise faster than fresh bread and dissipate as quickly as they appear, but trends are more likely to follow an arc lasting weeks or months, giving bakeries plenty of time to cash in. At Bakery Showcase, AI and retail demand forecasting expert Tali Remennik, founder of Toronto-based retail forecasting company Granularity, explained the mechanics of viral food trends, debunked a few myths and advised bakers on how to leverage social media. In a show-of-hands poll, many of the
bakers and bakery owners in the room indicated that they were interested in leveraging social media trends but assumed the trend landscape moved too fast to make a menu overhaul worthwhile. “We’re going to be talking about how you can action trends without having to change your whole menu, and [what you can do] in the short term to act on trends,” Remennik said.
She noted that contrary to popular belief, trends don’t “pop up overnight” –it often takes two to four months for social media trends to gain enough offline traction to potentially drive sales, so bakers who keep an eye on potential trends, set aside time to discuss trends with their sales teams and name a point person to monitor trends are better positioned to jump on the opportunities trends offer. “The biggest mistake [businesses] make is reactivity – talking about trends casually instead of taking the time,” she said.
Before or instead of making a big investment – such as buying thousands of dollars in machinery to respond to a trend – Remennik advised participants
to think carefully about which trends they are interested in acting on. “You don’t have to do everything.” She suggested that after picking a trend, retailers should look at their existing menus and see which items already fit the trend or could be adapted to fit with a new filling, topping or shape. Consider launching a single product inspired by a trend and adding related options if and when it catches on.
After adapting the product, the next step, as Remennik sees it, is adapting signage, store displays, sales packages and sales language to match consumer terminology. She suggested adding a “flavour of the month” feature to reflect evolving trends, or offering a miniature version of a new product with an existing sales package to encourage customers to try it.
She observed that over time, “microtrends” (for example, mango ice cream or keto-friendly bagels) often give rise to “macrotrends” (mango desserts, frozen desserts or keto-friendly snacks) that offer additional opportunities for creative retailers and chefs. / BJ
Notes from the Executive Director
SHOWCASE THANKS
We are delighted to report that the Bakery Showcase in Montreal was an unrivalled success that beat the last edition in Quebec (2019) by a whopping 70 per cent!
We would like to thank our local hosts for all the great work they did to bring our Canadian bakery family together for this unprecedented event. Our regional affiliate, Conseil du Boulangerie Quebec (CBQ), part of CTAQ, which is led by our national director Dimitri Fraeys, pulled out all the stops to help make this a welcoming and successful “Salon.” Merci a tout!
We would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Annex Business Media team, who once more exceeded all expectations as Bakery Showcase managers!
We enjoyed the inaugural Bakery Cup of Canada-Quebec Edition. This prestigious competition is a precursor of the national competition to be held in Toronto next year. Read about the winners on page 6.
STRONG YEAR FOR BAC
The association held its annual general meeting on April 14 and the delegates attending were treated to an excellent report on the BAC’s activities over the previous 12 months. Our messaging was positive and strong on the heels of a banner year for our baking sector. Our chair, Louis Bontorin, has
First-ever Bakery Cup of
Honouring a valued colleague Girl Scout controversy debunked
agreed to serve for another term. Our diverse directors whose terms were expiring were eager to stay on the board. This stability is testimony to the thoughtful, constructive and rewarding work that they enjoy as leaders of the Canadian baking industry.
HONOURING MICHEL DION
At this year’s Bakery Showcase, the Baking Association of Canada proudly presented Michel Dion with a Lifetime Achievement Award, joined by his wife Céline, in recognition of his enduring legacy of excellence and his profound impact on the Canadian baking sector. Surrounded by fellow directors and members of the BAC, Michel was honoured not only for his decades of leadership, but for the meaningful contributions he has made to elevate and shape the industry across Canada.
From all of us – thank you, Michel and Céline, for your passion, dedication, and vision.
LA VERSION FRANÇAISE SUIT
Lors du Bakery Showcase de cette année, l’Association canadienne de la boulangerie a eu l’honneur de remettre à Michel Dion un Prix hommage pour l’ensemble de sa carrière, en compagnie de son épouse Céline, en reconnaissance de son héritage d’excellence et de son influence marquante dans le secteur de la boulangerie au Canada. Entouré des membres du conseil d’administration et des représentants de l’Association, Michel a été célébré non seulement pour ses décennies de leadership, mais aussi pour ses contributions significatives qui ont façonné et fait évoluer l’industrie à travers le pays. De la part de nous tous – merci, Michel et Céline, pour votre passion, votre dévouement et votre vision.
Canada-Quebec Edition
The BAC celebrates Michel Dion, seen here with wife Céline (centre), at Bakery Showcase.
GIRL SCOUT CONTROVERSARY
TAKEN WITH LARGE GRAIN OF SALT
You may have read in theguardian.com about the $5-million lawsuit in the U.S. claiming that their beloved Girl Scout cookies are dangerous.
As many of you know, I am the unofficial tester of Girl Guide cookies and have often been seen lurking around grocery store doorways on fundraising days to get my hands on a few boxes (mint is my favourite). So, I was interested to see what claims were being made against our sister cookies to the south.
have improved greatly over the last 50 years to address both the quality and tonnage of ingredients needed to feed our populous planet. Exposure-hungry groups will always look for ways to criticize and to find tiny cracks to cast an angry, biased light across the whole. They can try. Our products are safer and more wholesome than ever. Locally, and across the planet, we serve delicious, healthy food, down to the last Girl Guide cookie.
WHOLEMEAL (WHOLEGRAIN) AND SOURDOUGH CLAIMS
The Snopes website explains that this lawsuit stems from the self-described consumer group Moms Across America, in conjunction with GMOScience, who posted lab reports in which Girl Scout cookies tested positive for heavy metals and the herbicide glyphosate. That’s headline-grabbing news – cookies sold by children, poisoning children. Of course, there is more to the story.
The lab reports showed glyphosate and the naturally occurring heavy metals arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and aluminum in the cookies were at levels well within the safety guidelines for food established by the FDA, EPA and CDC. It would take a 66-pound child eating 9,000 cookies in one day to approach the dangerous levels as defined by the FDA. Even with my GGC addiction, I could never eat that many in a day! What’s more, as with past claims made by the MAA organization that Snopes investigated, the scope of these tests was limited and the presentation of the results misleading.
The problem for our sector is that sites like that of MAA exist to promote controversial subjects veiled as concern for children’s health. They send out press releases and suddenly we are scared of everyday items. We must be wary of claims vilifying baked goods.
Healthy, chemical and toxin-free food is a major concern for all of us, consumers and producers alike. Farming and processing practices
Viewpoint: Loving the life you choose
BY MARK UNCAO, CEO, EM BAKERY EQUIPMENT
I grew up in the baking industry, part of a secondgeneration family business started by my parents.
In my work as a distributor of equipment and services, I travel across North America, working with craft bakers, factory producers and supermarket chains and supporting these customers with equipment and production solutions. A common thread among us is the ability to support and feed our communities with those long-established staples – bread and baked goods.
One example of this ability is felt deeply when working with craft bakers in remote areas. It’s during these travels that I’ve encountered another source of resurgence for baking with a deep belief in quality, natural grains and long fermentation times. These
We note with interest a recent ruling by Defra in the U.K. that clarifies various claims made by bakers, especially when it comes to using wholemeal (wholegrain) and sourdough. We are in ongoing discussions about how to also clarify claims made by Canadian bakers. Explore the ruling at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bread-andflour-labelling-and-composition and, for an analysis, read “Labelled, fortified, but ‘not finished’: UK bakers react to new Bread & Flour rules” by Gill Hyslop of bakeryandsnacks.com.
A SLICE OF PRIDE
As an industry we take great pride in what we produce and the impact it makes on the world. Member Mark Uncao of EM Bakery Equipment wrote the following piece that sums up nicely what we do and why.
Martin Barnett, Executive Director Baking Association of Canada mbarnett@baking.ca
are grassroots bakers borrowing money from banks, provincial or state subsidy programs, friends and family. In these remote areas, they themselves are established food centres for their community. At their heart is the belief in feeding locals with hearth breads, pizza and other wonderful products. Not only is there a focus on natural breads, but some bakers also bake with heirloom grains such as bere barley, amaranth, blé dur arcour, red fife, spelt and Polish wheat. These grains involve production and self-milling techniques in their own right, creating a variety of different bread profiles not seen in the general selection of more common commercial breads. Their presence paints a vibrant collage of different talents and products tailored to the region and population demands.
It’s a deeply rewarding experience to work with a team to build equipment and ovens that will produce for the long-term needs of these communities.
The impact we have on the industry is mirrored by many other colleagues contributing to bakeries and producers for the same cause: Factories contributing to long production lines to feed masses of population with affordable goods. Supermarkets that make easy access to food achievable for families and their loved ones. Vocational schools fostering young talent that will grow and provide further creativity and ingenuity in the market. Together we all play a role around the world to provide humanity with nourishment. This is an important responsibility taken on with pride and gratitude.
I am proud that we support an industry that supports and feeds communities. We support health and well-being in the world. What we do every day helps nourish and sustain humanity. This is what gets me out of bed and keeps me growing.
Long live bread!
BAC Unites the Canadian Baking Community
PHOTO:
BAKERY SHOWCASE SPOTLIGHT: THE RESILIENT BAKERY
When François Barrière opened the first branch of Boulangerie Toledo, in the heart of Montreal’s Plateau-MontRoyal neighbourhood, in 2019, it was the fruit of three decades of dreams and more than five years of analysis.
“I’m a data guy,” the former banker said. “I’d planned out my first day.”
Once the doors opened, though, much of his planning went out the window. “We were four months behind schedule, and I thought, ‘It’s now or never.’ The night before, the glass shields we had between the sales floor and the production floor had all broken, so we had no shields and there was flour everywhere. The electricity wasn’t entirely hooked up, so there was equipment we couldn’t run.”
}He made $1,980 that first day – $20 short of his goal. “I should have been happy,” he said, but he went home and cried, wondering what he’d gotten himself into.
executive officer of Boulangerie Humanité – shared their stories of entrepreneurial resilience during a French-language panel at Bakery Showcase in Montreal on April 15, moderated by Élisabeth Brasseur of Farinart and the BAC board of directors.
They spoke frankly about how the past few years of public health restrictions, inflation, labour shortages, supply chain challenges, and more recently, tariff uncertainty – not to mention unforeseen circumstances – put their plans to the test.
“Those first few days [in 2019] built my resilience – I was able to say, ‘You don’t know what’s going to happen, so have a little faith in yourself,’ ” Barrière said. He drew on his previous experience with
“If you have data, you won’t go into panic mode.” –Dominique Bohec, Boulangerie Humanité
That was just the beginning. When he got to work on day three, he saw police tape, blood and broken glass. A complete stranger had broken in and bled out on the floor. The bakery closed for two days to bring in a post-disaster cleaning team, then kicked into high gear. Over the next year, Toledo gained a following, and its baguettes were named Montreal’s best.
“March 13, 2020, I had champagne and balloons ready for the anniversary – and that’s when [Quebec Premier] François Legault sent everybody home.” The COVID-19 pandemic had arrived.
Three Montreal-area bakers – Barrière; Marie-Ève Chaume, cofounder of specialty bakery Viva Panettone; and Dominique Bohec, president and chief
adversity to weather the COVID storm. After the initial shock of the pandemic, the bakery pivoted to online sales; once restrictions eased somewhat, they even opened a second physical location.
Chaume was speaking two weeks after a fire destroyed a building near her bakery, forcing her to pause production and lay off staff. “I’m testing my resilience plan as we speak.”
She emphasized the importance of self-care before, during and after a crisis. “I’ve been in crisis mode for 15 days and I’m really tired. If I didn’t take care of myself, if I wasn’t in good physical and mental health before this happened, I wouldn’t be the same person speaking to you today. It’s also important to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing; that helps put you in a position where you can absorb the punches. I really adore my
product, I love my team and I love watching my baby grow up – that’s what drives me. ”
Bohec spoke of having to deal with a wave of employee turnover, largely driven by differences of opinion about where the business was going, during a severe labour shortage. “There we were in mid-July with no one taking the orders and no accountant,” he remembered. “Then there was equipment trouble – a fire in a freezer that never would have crossed my mind. Then there were cashflow issues, and I had to negotiate with suppliers . . . and completely refinance. We actually finished that year in an excellent position, but I had a lot of trouble sleeping.”
Alongside the importance of flexibility, motivation and staying healthy, he also highlighted the importance of quality data when weathering supply shocks, inflation and evolving demand. Having quality data allowed his company to pivot to – and focus on – what they did best amid market uncertainty. “If you have data, you won’t go into panic mode.”
Toward the end of the panel, the panellists addressed global economic instability. All expected difficulties in the months ahead; Chaume even mentioned the possibility of a worldwide recession. But none of the panellists seemed panicked. Bohec explained that Boulangerie Humanité exports a quarter of its products to the U.S. “We’ve been lucky: we have very good relationships with our customers. We had some American customers who refused to do business with us because we were Canadian, but the tide is turning. A bakery is a longterm project, and then there are ups and downs. If we’re not ready to do [weather the ups and downs], I think we’re in the wrong field.” / BJ
LEARNING IN ACTION
INNOVATION WITH CHOCOLATE
In a fascinating demonstration, respected pastry chef Nicolas Dutertre, director of the Chocolate Academy Montreal, demonstrated creative approaches to using chocolate in your bakery’s products. A highlight was his Brioche Tropézienne Chocolat featuring pate a brioche, mango and passionfruit confit, crème patissiere and crème diplomate au chocolat. Dutertre shared the recipe with the audience. Dutertre taught the
audience a technique meant to control how the cake is going to look after it’s baked by placing parchment paper on top of the cake. “It’s a technique that you use in croissant, for example, because everyone knows the croissant can be round or square. So this is kind of the same vibe.”
PASTRY INNOVATION WITH CHICKPEA FLOUR
Kirk Borchardt, senior R&D chef at Ardent Mills led a demonstration and discussion of the benefits of baking with
Kirk Borchardt, senior R&D chef at Ardent Mills led a demonstration and discussion of the benefits of baking with roasted chickpea flour.
the company’s roasted chickpea flour, assisted by Benoit Dussault and Reid McEachran. Bakers in the audience sampled Chef Borchardt’s sweet and savoury products. The team emphasized the clean, balanced flavour profile and explained how bakers can use chickpea flour in their formulations to enhance nutritional, textural and flavour profiles.
CHOCOLATE SCULPTURE
Jérémy Monsel, master chocolatier and head baker at Ange Canada, showcased his
skill in working with chocolate by crafting a playful Easter bunny sculpture.
Monsel shared innovative techniques, played with textures, touched on how new technology can help your creativity and, with translation from Nicolas Dutertre, talked about his career journey.
For example, he made realistic-looking leaves by dipping a plastic sheet directly into crystallized chocolate, peeling it back slightly and spraying. To patinate the sculpture,
Chef Nicolas Dutertre of Montreal’s Chocolate Academy demonstrates techniques to perfect Brioche Tropézienne Chocolat.
To patinate the sculpture, master chocolatier Jérémy Monsel used a very cold sponge and a lot of elbow grease.
he used a very cold sponge and a lot of elbow grease. As Duterte translated, “We’re really going to rub, rub, rub, rub everywhere until it becomes really very shiny . . . for about an hour.”
Monsel won the title of North America 2024 master chocolatier from the prestigious World Chocolate Master competition, and in 2026, will represent the North American continent at the grand finale of the World Chocolate Championships in Belgium.
A BAR CAKE TO REMEMBER
Puratos’s always-engaging technical advisors Pedro Sousa and Sami Péan presented innovative solutions for patisserie in the form of a delicious Raspberry Pistachio Cake, featuring white chocolate cake., with numerous professional tips.
Originally from Portugal, Sousa owned and managed a successful bakery for 20 years before moving to Canada in 2013 and later working with Puratos. Over 35 years, Sami Péan honed his craft in diverse roles in hotels, restaurants, catering and bakery shops.
FIG INNOVATION
Richard Charpentier, Certified Master Baker and owner of consulting business Baking Innovation, showed bakers different ways to incorporated figs into their products. Charpentier told the audience how California Fig ingredients such as whole, diced, e-diced, paste, powder and juice concentrate can elevate baked goods in both function and flavour.
He added ginger cayenne pepper, black pepper and cinnamon to the fig mixture to meet the “swicy” trend, noting that figs work very well with different spices and flavours.
LAMINATION STATION CAPS OFF SHOW
Alan Dumonceaux, chair of the baking and pastry program at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and National Chair and World Expert with Skills Canada, delivered an informative demo and discussion of modern laminating techniques.
Dumonceaux took bakers through the lamination process, discussing how many layers to build, how to make that decision to achieve your desired effect, ingredient selection, butter percentages. He also touched on speed of production and its implications for labour costs, making use of Rondo’s lamintor, the Rondomat, to prepare satifsyingly crunchy croissants and pinwheels.
The expert chef and instructor held his audience rapt to the very end of Showcase – what a way to cap off the event! / BJ
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HOW DO I GET STARTED?
When transitioning to more sustainable packaging, it’s important to choose materials that fulfil your business requirements while ensuring food safety, quality and the shelf life of your product. Plastic packaging with excellent barrier properties can extend product shelf life, but these materials often consist of multiple components that hinder recycling. A solution that results in greater food waste may have a greater negative environmental impact than the original, less sustainable packaging.
Adherence to the Golden Design Rules for Plastic Packaging, established by the Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastic Waste Coalition of Action, will improve the recyclability and sustainability of your plastic packaging.
Look for packaging vendors who focus on sustainability and offer clear information about the materials they use and the accuracy of their environmental claims. Transitioning to sustainable packaging is a gradual process without a one-sizefits-all solution. Research thoroughly and collaborate closely with your brand.
CFRIL is here to support your business through your sustainability journey. Reach out anytime cfril@conestogac.on.ca.
REFERENCES
• Association of Municipalities of Ontario. (2023). Ontario baseline waste & recycling report. https://www.amo.on.ca/sites/ default/files/assets/DOCUMENTS/ Waste/2023/AMO-ON-Baseline-2023-v6AODA.pdf
• Canada Plastics Pact. (2021). Canada Plastics Pact foundational research and study: Canadian plastic packaging flows. [Report]. https://plasticspact.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CPP-FoundationalResearch-on-Canadian-Plastics-PackagingFlows-May-2021-final.pdf
• Canada Plastics Pact. (n.d.). The golden design rules for plastics packaging. https:// goldendesignrules.plasticspact.ca/
• Government of Canada. (2021, April). Reducing municipal solid waste. https:// www.canada.ca/en/environment-climatechange/services/managing-reducingwaste/municipal-solid/reducing.html
• Gürlich, U., Kladnik, V., Tacker, M., & Kreuzinger, M. (2021). Packaging design for recycling: a global recommendation for circular packaging design. World Packaging Organization: Vienna, Austria. http://dx.doi. org/10.13140/RG.2.2.32048.69121
• McKinsey & Company. (2023, April 26). Sustainability in packaging: US survey insights. https://www.mckinsey.com/
industries/packaging-and-paper/ourinsights/sustainability-in-packaging-ussurvey-insights
• Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016, S.O. 2016, c. 12. https://www. ontario.ca/laws/statute/16r12
• Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations, SOR/2022-138. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/ eng/regulations/SOR-2022-138/page-1.html
• Sustainable Packaging Coalition. (2021, January). Understanding the role of compostable packaging in North America. https://sustainablepackaging.org/ wp-content/uploads/2023/07/UnderstandingCompostablePackagingGuide.pdf
• Sustainable Packaging Coalition. (2024). Framework for Scaling Reuse. https:// sustainablepackaging.org/wp-content/ uploads/2024/10/SPC_Reuse-Framework_2024_FINAL.pdf
• United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2024a). Sustainable Management of Food | Wasted Food Scale. https://www. epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/ wasted-food-scale
Tracy Butt is a researcher with the Conestoga Food Research & Innovation Lab and specializes in projects related to food safety and food manufacturing from concept to scale-up. Tyler Williams serves as the packaging researcher for CFRIL. His areas of specialization include design and innovation, sales, management, testing and R&D.
INTO PIZZA TRENDS AND REFRESH YOUR PIZZA MENU!
Bring your signature pizza to the Chef of the Year Competition, see how it stacks up and vie with other pizzerias to win a trip to compete at the Las Vegas Pizza Expo! It’s free to pizzerias and their teams!
YOUNG AND NEW WORKERS AT RISK OF INJURY
Workplace injuries can happen to anyone, but young and new workers may be especially vulnerable. This is particularly true in fast-paced environments, where hazards are common. That’s why targeted training, close supervision and strong support systems are essential.
In bakeries, pizzerias and baked goods manufacturing, workers are exposed to multiple hazards, including fast-moving conveyor belts, industrial mixers and sharp tools. Employers must ensure that all workers, especially those new to the job, can recognize hazards, understand the associated risks and prevention measures, and are fully aware of their health and safety rights and responsibilities.
WHO ARE ‘YOUNG’ AND ‘NEW’ WORKERS?
The Occupational Health and Safety Regulation defines a “young worker” as any worker under age 25. A new worker can be any age and may be new to the job, new to a specific location or simply facing new hazards in the workplace.
Here are some typical reasons why young and new workers are injured:
• inexperience
• lack of training, orientation and supervision
• lack of understanding of their workplace
• lack of preparation for the workplace
• exposure to more dangerous jobs
• hesitancy to ask questions
THE DATA ON YOUNG WORKERS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF
The numbers tell a clear story: young workers in the baking industry face real risks. Over the past five years, 218 young
Young and new workers often hesitate to voice concerns. That’s why it’s essential for employers to create a workplace where asking questions and speaking up are not just accepted but encouraged.
workers have been injured on the job in B.C.’s baking industry – 23 of those injuries were serious.
In 2023 alone, young workers made up 12 per cent of all WorkSafeBC claims. In the baking sector, the numbers were even higher: they accounted for 17 per cent of all claims and 14 per cent of serious injuries.
ORIENTATION AND TRAINING: THE FOUNDATION OF WORKPLACE SAFETY
Employers must prepare workers before they start, ensuring young and new
employees receive effective orientation and training to prevent injuries.
“Employers need to ensure their young workers aren’t taking unnecessary risks or feeling immune to injury,” says Tami Der, industry and program specialist at WorkSafeBC. “Bakeries have many potential hazards, so proper orientation, training and supervision are key to maintaining a safe environment.”
TIPS FOR TRAINING NEW AND YOUNG WORKERS
To effectively engage young and new
workers, employers should use interactive training methods like simulations, hands-on demonstrations and multimedia tools. These approaches help maintain attention, reinforce learning and build confidence.
Additionally, a mentorship program – in which new workers are paired with experienced colleagues – can foster a supportive environment and strengthen communication.
SETTING THE TONE FOR OPEN COMMUNICATION
Young and new workers often hesitate to voice concerns, even when something doesn’t feel right. That’s why it’s essential for employers to create a workplace where asking questions and speaking up are not just accepted but encouraged.
Supervisors and managers play a critical role. When they model openness, respond thoughtfully to concerns and check in regularly, they help break down communication barriers and build trust.
Darcy Kulai was injured in a workplace accident in 1997 at age 20, which left him with devastating hand injuries. “If a younger worker feels unsafe or unsure, they should speak up without feeling pressure to impress anyone,” he says.
Kulai emphasizes the influence of those in positions of authority – both at home and in the workplace – on how young workers approach safety. “We need to normalize asking questions of new and young workers. ‘Do you feel safe at work?’ and ‘Will you ask questions if needed?’ Starting this conversation helps workers feel more comfortable speaking up and asking for guidance.”
By reinforcing that every concern will be taken seriously, and that asking questions is part of doing the job well, employers can help young workers build confidence and develop strong, lifelong safety habits.
BUILDING A SAFETY CULTURE
Creating a safety culture is an ongoing effort. Employers can take other simple yet effective actions to demonstrate that safety is a top priority:
• Start each day with a five-minute safety chat.
• Do walkthroughs of the worksite with employees to identify hazards together.
• Review your joint health and safety committee action items as a team.
• Conduct an annual safety culture survey and act on employee feedback.
• Encourage workers to report near misses to their supervisors, along with any ideas they may have to prevent future near misses.
Kulai urges both employers and young workers to always consider health and safety risks. “It’s always better to slow down and ask questions than to risk an injury that could change your life,” he says. “Compromising safety is never worth it.”
For more information, visit https://www.worksafebc.com/ en/health-safety/education-training-certification/youngnew-worker. / BJ
Alexandra Skinner is the manager of government and media relations at WorkSafeBC.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
EIGHT STEPS TO HELP YOUR BAKERY GEAR UP FOR THE SUMMER SEASON
7. BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN YOUR COMMUNITY
Team up with local businesses to amplify your bakery’s presence and attract a broader audience. Consider partnering with nearby attractions, restaurants, hotels, or event organizers and crosspromoting each other’s offerings. Building a bakery community is essential for fostering positive and long-lasting relationships with your guests, encouraging repeat visits and attracting new customers through word-of-mouth.
8. LEVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA
Use social media to showcase your most beautiful pastries, daily specials and community events. Start by creating engaging profiles on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Post high-quality photos of your baked goods, showcase seasonal treats, and share customer stories. Ask guests to tag you in their social media posts or create a fun hashtag. Your customers will happily help market your bakery shop to their followers and friends — for free! / BJ
Diane Chiasson, FCSI, president of Chiasson Consultants Inc., has been helping foodservice, hospitality and retail operators increase sales for over 35 years by providing innovative and revenue-increasing food service and retail merchandising programs, interior design, branding, menu engineering, marketing and promotional campaigns. Contact her at 416-926-1338, send her an email at chiasson@ chiassonconsultlants.com, or visit www.chiassonconsultants.com
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
BUTTERCREAM CHARM
Passionfruit is one of Wong’s favoured fruit flavours. Her Passionfruit cake starts with a vanilla butter cake base lavishly brushed with passionfruit syrup and frosted with passionfruitinfused buttercream. It’s decorated with edible blooms.
Customers favour the Lemon Lavender Marble cake. “I take lemon cake batter and marble it with French lavender cake batter before baking. It’s frosted with light purple lavender buttercream and decorated with lavender sprigs pressed right into the cake. A gold-painted trim is the finishing touch.”
Cake Bar Boxes are popular at Flouring. Sheet cakes are presented in cut bars, featuring an assortment of cake flavours. It makes for a gorgeous dessert presentation.
Listen up, bakers and pastry chefs! The buttercream cake trend is here to stay. Experiment with flavours and decorative elements to encourage customers to think about all things buttercream. These delicious cakes have profitable sales potential for everyday treats to significant life milestone events. Start stocking your showcases! / BJ
Karen Barr is an Ottawa-based writer and licensed chef who travels the world to explore topics about food and culture.
ASIAN DESSERTS
Asian flavours took centre stage as Humber Polytechnic baking and pastry and culinary students prepared and served specialty dishes and desserts inspired by Taiwanese and Japanese flavours and culture at an event held to raise funds for their spring field trip to Japan and Taiwan.
Guests enjoyed a themed sampling session featuring a selection of dishes made for them by Humber Polytechnic baking and culinary students as part of the Kraft Heinz Pastry and Dessert Showcase.
For a $10 ticket, Humber students and members of the public could go from booth to booth to sample such delicacies as Taiwanese Xiao Long Bao dumplings, and Japanese yakitori, mochi and roll cakes with matcha green tea and strawberry sakura, or cherry blossom, flavours.
Students demonstrated and discussed characteristics and techniques of the delicacies they created.
Luciana Cuello, pastry chef and baking and pastry arts instructor, demonstrated how to make an Asian bruschetta using Italian focaccia as a base. Cuello included honey in the “super simple” focaccia, but told the audience of about 50 they could use sugar, maple syrup or anything sweet.
“Mix extra virgin olive oil with roomtemperature water until you don’t see any dry spots. It should be a shaggy dough,” the chef advised.
It’s a forgiving formula, she said. “If you are making the focaccia the same day, you just have to warm up the water. Transfer to a square baking tray, let it rise several hours, you will see a lot of movement.”
She added, “For bruschetta, you want your bread slightly dry to absorb the moisture of the toppings,” which included peeled tomatoes, green onions, olive oil, sesame oil – for an Asian influence – rice vinegar, garlic and fresh ginger. It was all topped with seaweed, another Asian touch.
Chef Cuello also made a tart made with raspberry peanut butter ganache that took guests on a trip down memory lane. “It’s a twist on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but a little more fancy,” she said. A competition showcased the students’
Humber student Sally Fu demonstrates how to make a Japanese roll cake. Fu will graduate with a diploma in the Baking and Pastry Arts Diploma Program this June.
}Students demonstrated and discussed characteristics and techniques of delicacies.
talent and creativity. In the Bite-Sized Brilliance Competition, students created a mini baked good, a chocolate, a bread, a pastry and an appetizer or canapé inspired by Taiwan or Japan and featuring a Kraft Heinz product as a key ingredient.
Judges for the competition were Alon Chitiz, corporate chef with Kraft Heinz Canada, Vivien Mengjie Shi, business development manager with Valrhona Canada; Jason Gray, general manager with Master Martini Canada, and Nikolas Tsirgielis, associate director, Advancement and Alumni with Humber.
The judges praised the innovative products, which included the following:
• a cream cheese cookie, a French macaron with sakura (cherry blossom)
• a Matsumoto macaron that featured the theme of embracing your imperfectionsembodied by the Japanese art of broken pottery
• white chocolate matcha bonbons, strawberry matcha layered cheesecake
• a pineapple cream cheese sablon
• a black sesame cream cheese ice cream with yuzu sorbet
• a sweet and savoury version of mioyaki (a simple Japanese delicacy featuring miso paste)
• a savoury meatball complete with Kraft Heinz jalapeño ketchup
• a honey-flavoured yuzu cheesecake featuring matcha pistachio with yuzu jam on top
Baking and Pastry Arts Management students Gursimran Sodhi, Simeng Mu and Ira Sonido finished first, second and third respectively.
Chef Kenneth Ku, a professor with the Baking and Pastry Arts Management program at Humber, oversaw organization of the event. Ku thanked sponsors Kraft Heinz, the judges, collaborating media students from other departments and the students, who worked hours and hours, including on weekends, on their creations and presentations.
“It’s great to see everyone experience this cuisine that includes ingredients from Kraft Heinz Canada – I love the creativity the students have shown where they can take something familiar and put a delicious new spin on it,” judge Chitiz said.
A group of 18 students and two instructors will travel to Japan and Taiwan for a two-week study trip this May. / BJ
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ANCIENT FRUIT, MODERN APPEAL
The functional and flavourful benefits of dried fruit in baking are worth exploring
The Bakery Showcase is an event to gather insights on the latest trends, network with longtime colleagues and meet new talent in the baking industry. In April, I attended the Showcase in Montreal and several trends caught my eye. Sugar reduction and alternatives to refined sugar are on the rise in baking. A subtheme of this was front and centre at the Showcase with California Figs. Not only do figs provide a natural source of sugar in both sweet and savoury baked goods, but also they add delicious flavour, nutrition, interesting textures and rich colour. Expanding on the work California Figs is doing, other dried fruits, including dates, prunes and raisins, are having their moment as well in what is described by California Figs as ancient fruit with a modern appeal.
}Showcase highlighted the flavourful and functional benefits of using figs in baking. The demo displayed the numerous formats of figs including a fruit juice concentrate, syrup and extruded diced figs. Charpentier describes the top three benefits of dried fruits in baking: “As a flavour enhancement, figs, dates, prunes and raisins deliver natural sweetness and layered flavour, enhancing both sweet and savoury profiles. For moisture retention as their fibre and sugar content help keep baked goods moist and soft, improving shelf life. And finally, their visual and textural appeal. They provide visual contrast and a satisfying chew that enriches the eating experience.”
And we can’t forget about the nutritional aspects of dried fruits. Stockli says, “Dried fruit provides a natural sweetness without added sugar. In fact, dried fruit is high in fibre and essential minerals like
“Dried fruit has a low specific gravity keeping fruit from sinking in batters and promoting even distribution, which is ideal for integrating well into mixtures.” –Karla Stockli, California Dried Fruit Coalition
Karla Stockli, chief executive officer, California Fig Advisory Board, and stakeholder, California Dried Fruit Coalition, says, “We’re excited to see momentum building for dried fruits in the baking category. With all four industries (figs, dates, prunes and raisins) providing the various forms, it makes it easier than ever to utilize them in bakeries and manufacturing, which also aligns with consumers demanding natural, clean ingredients. Dried fruit consumption is on the rise, and we’re here to support it. We are finding the number one functional benefit of dried fruits in baking is flavour. Close behind flavour, dried fruit has a low specific gravity keeping fruit from sinking in batters and promoting even distribution, which is ideal for integrating well into mixtures.”
California Figs’ demonstration, with Richard Charpentier, French Master Baker and founder of Baking Innovation, at the
potassium, magnesium and calcium.” Charpentier adds, “Figs are particularly rich in citric acid up to 0.9 per cent, which brightens flavour and helps balance sweetness in baked goods. They also contain around 162 milligrams of calcium per 100 gram, making them one of the more calcium-rich dried fruits. These properties support clean-label baking by reducing the need for added sugar or artificial flavour enhancers.”
Dried fruit adds versatility to a wide range of baking applications. This allows bakers to choose the flavour and texture that best suits their needs. Charpentier explains, “Figs were introduced to California by Spanish missionaries in the 1700s as a great and easy source of food and remain relevant today. In bakeries and restaurants, I’ve seen them featured in sourdoughs, laminated pastries, muffins, cookies and even pizza toppings, often paired with goat cheese, citrus zest, whole grains, or spices to elevate both flavour and presentation.”
Master Baker Richard Charpentier says figs, dates, prunes and raisins sweeten naturally, retain moisture, improve shelf life, and provide visual and textural appeal. Charpentier’s poppyseed rolls are just one delicious application.
Dried fruit is shelf stable and available year round ensuring consistency and affordability. Dried fruit extends the shelf life of baked goods, making them a practical choice for commercial baking. Stockli describes the dried fruit formats that are trending among bakers: “There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all format. It depends on the need and the bandwidth of the bakery. Some still prefer whole fruit and chopping to desired size themselves. Diced is an excellent option for convenience. And e-diced, which is paste that is extruded and diced, takes it one step further providing a solution for a softer, more pliable product. Paste is very popular because grinding the dried fruit can be tough on the equipment. Juice concentrate is gaining popularity for its rich flavour and colouring.”
Now’s the time to add these ancient fruits with modern appeal providing natural sweetness, unique flavours, chewy textures, nutrition and rich colour to your bakery products! / BJ
Jane Dummer, RD, known as the Pod to Plate Food Consultant, collaborates and partners with the food and nutrition industry across North America. janedummer.com.
