After almost four years in Paris, where I studied at Le Cordon Bleu and worked for Verjus, Le Grand Bain and Le Petit Grain, my plan was to hike the Appalachian Trail (and subsequent Triple Crown trails) before COVID-19 hijacked that plan in 2020, and pushed everything back. Pandemic cancellation sucks, but there are some great silver linings:

I didn’t have to rush back from some remote location in the northeast for the birth of my son on August 16, 2020 AND I got to spend more time caring for him and watching him grow.
I got to start baking and taste testing recipes that I had been working on for the last half-decade since leaving Indianapolis for Asia and Europe.

With that, I started a donation-only bakery (a ‘garage’ bakery) that I ran out of my home, other homes and pop-ups, and with the primary purpose of testing and developing recipes. I wanted as many folks to try what I made and and for them to give me their feedback. I received a ton of support from family and friends to help get equipment to bring that bread to you, and donations helped buy ingredients and (for a time) helped cover my financial contribution to my son.

Well…things blew up… I maxed out what I could bake and fry in my studio apartment and the city wasn’t too crazy about me continuing along those lines (despite being donation-based and getting a thumbs up from the state department of health for operating as a home-based vendor), so I created a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to purchase a food truck. Over 400 folks contributed through the Kickstarter or privately, and we hit our goal! The BB&B Bread Truck was born.