Food & Drink BAKERY
By Karen Greco
Rising to the Occasion With roots in Hope & Main, a growing bakery specializes in handcrafted babka, challah, and more bread class – with an instructor who shared the sartorial sensibility of a Johnny Depp character – where he found his path. This rock-and-roll baker became Hanuka’s mentor, and he spent eight years learning the bread business from him, eventually opening bakeries as far-flung as China. During a fortuitous holiday in Vermont, he met Certified Master Baker Jeffrey Hamelman in line at the King Arthur Flour store. The two kept in touch, and Hamelman suggested Hanuka, who confided he wanted formal training, attend Johnson and Wales’
Advanced Standing program. A few years, a degree, and a marriage later, Hanuka, worried about mounting bills, went to work for a moving company in Boston. Then, the pandemic happened. He stayed at his day job but with free time to fill at night, “I started to bake again,” he says. An innocuous post on Facebook, asking if anyone wanted a challah or babka, spread through Rhode Island’s Jewish community like over-proofed bread. He baked 80 loaves in his home kitchen that weekend. “My wife and I wrapped them in parchment
BUNS Bakery ships nationwide on Goldbelly.com
24
The Bay • January 2022
Photos courtesy of BUNS Bakery
Watching owner Guy Hanuka race through the sprawling commercial kitchen where he operates BUNS, it’s hard to believe that this bustling bakery began less than two years ago in his tiny home kitchen. Hanuka’s path to running Rhode Island’s premiere Israeli bakery is circuitous. After spending four years in the Israeli army, Hanuka loafed around Tel Aviv, taking a job washing dishes at a pastry school. “I found the baking world magical,” he says. From his perch at the sink, he absorbed the lessons taught to the students. It was the artisan
