Meet Rob and Kaitlyn of Baker’s Table & Pastry Co.! Inside the East Village Market, this cozy bakery makes everything from scratch. “We focus on having ingredients that everyone understands,” Rob says. “Going back as far in the process as possible and making everything is key.”
“A lot of bakeries that I’ve worked in, your fillings or your jams come in,” adds his second-in-command, Kaitlyn. At Baker’s Table, they make ingredients from mascarpone cheese to roll-in croissant fat. They import vanilla beans by the kilo to make their own vanilla, which is then aged six months. “You can taste it,” Rob says. “What’s used in artificial vanilla, it’s like a photocopy.”
Rob has been baking for as long as he can remember, but he’s also sold cars, designed kitchens, and been a sign language interpreter. “My family finally said: just go be a cook because that’s what you want to do.” Rob went to pastry school in PEI and worked at the prestigious Langdon Hall.
Although it let him hone his craft, it wasn’t the right fit. “I literally had sandpaper for shaping the cookies. I still have nightmares,” Rob says. “My own style is a little more relaxed than that—a little more rustic, a little more country bakery.”
With friends, Rob started Baker’s Table and built a great team with folks like Kaitlyn, who had Rob as a high school teacher. “He reached out one day looking for a full-time bread person and I thought: now’s the chance to go and risk it if I’m going to!” Kaitlyn says.
Rob’s love of teaching finds another outlet through baking classes. Upcoming themes include lasagna dinner (Aug 10) and sourdough (Aug 24-25). “Some people say, ‘people will know all your secrets and won’t buy anything from you!’” Rob says. “No, people who really like this stuff are curious and would like to be able to say they can make it. They don’t want to make it every day, but they do enjoy learning the process.”
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