Baking is a huge category, covering pastries, cakes, pies, and, of course, hundreds of varieties of bread. You can’t go anywhere in the world without encountering a smattering of local baking traditions, with many of those traditions and recipes stretching back for hundreds of years.
We’re especially fortunate here in the United States, where, for generations, people from all over the world have brought their baking traditions, skills, and tastes to the world’s melting pot.
This has helped to create a culinary landscape marked by an impressive amount of variety, with bakeries and restaurants offering a wide range of baked goods, and this is all made possible by talented bakers who have honed their skills in kitchens around the world.
We are joined today by one such baker: Melanie Legoupil, a native of France who has become an expert baker through years of experience and even a career change.
Melanie, currently based in New York, is Chef Boulanger/Head Baker for the Dinex Group, a family of restaurants overseen by the much-acclaimed Chef Daniel Boulud.
Melanie has shared her talents with bakeries in France, Morocco, and, of course, the US, and she was kind enough to set aside some time to have a conversation with us about some of her experiences as a professional baker and the joys of achieving excellence in such a competitive and demanding field.
Shaping a career
While you may expect that Melanie has been baking for the entirety of her career, that’s only
half right.
She was baking long before joining any kitchens, but when it was time to begin her professional
career, Melanie found herself drawn to a very different area of study. “I’ve always enjoyed baking very much, but baking professionally was a re-conversion for me. I first studied Chinese history and Mandarin at university.”
She was passionate about Chinese culture and history, but she couldn’t see herself continuing down this path for the length of her career. While looking for nearby jobs, Melanie felt that her lifelong love of baking might be useful in a professional bakery.
“At one point, I felt the need to change and decided to stage in a small bakery in France. The moment I entered le fournil [the kitchen] and touched the dough, I knew I had found myself and what I wanted to do with my life!”
Melanie was starting at the bottom of the totem pole, doing what might be called the grunt work of the kitchen, but even then she recognized her own potential and her innate love for creating wonderful food.
From that point on, she set her nose to the grindstone and worked her way up. And a big part of that process was becoming attuned to the breakneck speeds of these kitchens.
Up to speed
While baking in the comfort of your own home can be relaxing, slow-paced, and pleasant, baking in an actual bakery or commissary kitchen is far more hectic.
That doesn’t mean it’s disorganized or rushed. Quite the contrary. But everyone working in the kitchen has to be perfectly coordinated with everyone else. In the same vein, all of the equipment, most especially the ovens, needs to be operating at full efficiency so that the bakers can consistently produce such large quantities of product. If just one person isn’t pulling their weight, it can have a negative cascade effect on the entire team’s workflow.
But while many would find this demanding work environment intimidating, to say the very least, when Melanie discussed the atmosphere of a working kitchen, she explained that she finds comfort in the quick pacing and the challenge.
“Professional baking is quite physical and fast-paced! Just speaking for myself, I always liked to challenge myself. I never really felt it was difficult to follow.”
Melanie hasn’t just survived in these demanding work environments for the past ten years or so, she’s actually managed to thrive, climbing the ladder and exploring the art of baking from many different angles.
To this day, the nearly limitless category of bread continues to capture her imagination.
Infinite bread
We mentioned earlier how baking is completely cross-cultural and has been for hundreds, or even thousands, of years. So much of that shared heritage is based on different types of bread.
From Indian tandoori breads to Middle Eastern unleavened breads to the iconic baguettes and rolls of Western Europe, bread has been an essential component of meals around the world for much of human history. Certain bread varieties can even become meals all on their own.
The best news of all is that, according to Melanie, we still haven’t reached the limit of what bread can be. From a very simple foundation, bread can be manipulated and altered in so many different ways that it seems unlikely that we will ever run out of new possibilities.
“Bread is incredibly versatile. It’s made with very few ingredients, really. Just flour, water, and salt. And still, with just these three ingredients, you can make completely different bread depending on the recipe, the mixing method, and the fermentation process. The possibilities are almost infinite!”
This flexibility has made bread a kind of canvas for baking creativity. Expert bakers like Melanie, for example, are capable of making seemingly minor changes to a recipe or baking process that will result in something coming out of the oven that’s entirely new.
That level of creativity and skill are no doubt what caught the attention of the Dinex Group, who signed Melanie on to manage the baking for multiple high-end New York restaurants.
Dinex Group’s creativity
At long last, it’s time to talk about Melanie’s work with the Dinex Group. She first joined the Dinex Group back in 2014, and today, she leads a commissary kitchen as Head Baker, an impressive title given the skill level of Dinex’s kitchen staff.
If you’re not familiar with the term, think of a commissary kitchen as a satellite kitchen. It might not be on the same property as the restaurant it’s cooking or baking for, but its sole purpose is to support that restaurant or even multiple restaurants, as is the case with Melanie’s day-to-day work.
Since the Dinex Group owns a variety of restaurants in New York, as well as many other cities, the organization needs large numbers of world-class staff members, including servers, cooks, Chefs, and bakers, to create and deliver fine cuisine and luxury service.
As Chef Boulanger/Head Baker, Melanie is responsible for working with numerous Chefs and restaurants on any given day. She needs to understand exactly what they’ll be needing and when they’ll need them. Then, with her skilled team, she sets about doing all of the necessary baking for that day.
Melanie told us that her favorite part of the process is working with these different Chefs and bringing their visions to life.
“I love working with such amazing Chefs! Each Chef offers so much creativity that enhances the concept of each restaurant. It’s exceptional to see and very motivating as well.”
All of this talent and collaboration is ultimately to provide customers with exceptional dining experiences, and though such opportunities are rare, Melanie also finds motivation in the reactions of customers.
Customer reactions and feedback
While her commissary kitchen work doesn’t give Melanie the chance to see customers enjoying her creations (in fact, that’s the norm in most professional kitchens), she’s always interested in hearing what the customers think.
No Chef, cook, or baker works in a vacuum. While it’s easy to focus on the minutiae of cooking and baking from moment to moment, everyone working in the kitchen knows that their craft is meant to be enjoyed.
Melanie likes to go a step further, joining contests and events where she can interact more directly with customers and receive feedback.
Just recently, Melanie participated in the Best Croissant in NYC contest, where she was able to
meet with customers.
“It was very motivating and rewarding to have their feedback! We got to share our love of food and just spend time together. It’s lovely to connect like that.”
Melanie feels compelled to share her love of baking not only with customers but also with many aspiring bakers who want to follow in her footsteps.
Educating young bakers
We want to close things out with a few words of advice for the professional bakers of tomorrow, courtesy of Melanie Legoupil.
Melanie often works directly with interns from various baking schools, as part of their first professional experience, so she has a deep understanding of aspiring bakers’ concerns and challenges.
“I think it’s important to work in a professional kitchen quite early on when in the process of learning because there is a huge difference in the workload and pacing between school and professional baking. You also need to be very hands-on to learn well. With time and dedication, you can learn to keep up and be a valuable member of the team.”
This is also a fair summary of Melanie’s own career trajectory. She started out with only a passion for baking, and through years of hard work, she earned her expertise and secured jobs with renowned bakeries and restaurants. Her success isn’t by accident, but rather the result of commitment, creativity, and genuine skill, and anyone hoping to bake for a living would be wise to follow her example.
Special thanks to Melanie Legoupil for joining us, and thank you for reading.