NAME: Sandy Kim

AGE: 26

JOB TITLE: Partner and Senior Baker

COMPANY: Simply Bread, a bakery that supplies bread to restaurants, grocers and resorts

CITY: Phoenix, Ariz.

TIME AT YOUR PRESENT JOB: 1.5 years

 

 

Describe what you do.

I am a baker, not to be mistaken as a banker. My daily responsibilities include formulating daily production to meet orders and making sure that all bread production is completed accurately. It is a crucial part of my job to make sure that throughout the bread mixing, shaping and baking processes, quality is maintained and the integrity of the ingredients is not abused.

 

 

What’s a typical day like?

I start mixing the dough around 7 a.m. and it doesn’t stop until about 3 p.m. I mix anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of dough. Once that is completed, I formulate the production for the following day. Because so much of baking is a combination of science and math, it is very important to get the correct amounts of each ingredient. Sometimes, I work the graveyard shift (4 p.m. to 2 a.m.) and bake the bread that was mixed and shaped throughout the day. 

 

 

How did you ultimately enter this career?

After graduating from Claremont McKenna (in Claremont, Calif.) with an economics degree, I realized that I was not fit for the corporate world. I took a baking class during my travels in Korea and that was pretty much the start and end of my career search. I found myself working for a Korean baking corporation that was involved in a start-up bakery venture in Pasadena, Calif. I spent three months training in Korea and eventually returned to California to help procure and run what is now Wheatberry Bakery Cafe. I left my position as a manager there to pursue the actual art of baking. I took some courses at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, Calif., but got most of my baking education at the San Francisco Baking Institute and followed one of the instructors to start Simply Bread in Arizona.

 

 

Do you ever get sick of eating bread?

I eat a piece of bread probably every day. I am afraid I would never succeed on a low-carb diet. I am all about carbs!

 

 

What are the challenges of working in a bakery?

The biggest challenge for me is physical. I am a 5-foot 3-inch Korean girl who looks like she may not be able to carry more than 20 pounds of anything. And given the strenuous nature of baking — standing for eight to 12 hours a day and carrying 50 pounds of flour here and there — it can be a problem. When I interviewed with my other boss, he worried I would not be able to physically keep up. I told him I would gain weight for the job. However, I have overcome that physical barrier and have become much stronger for it, literally.