Words by Jennifer Jory
It’s 5AM at Bonjour Bakehouse and oven timers are sounding off simultaneously. The smell of freshly baked croissants and cookies wafts through the air. “It’s madness,” confesses François Bernaudin, describing the December morning when he and his co-owner, Ingrid Sarlandie, attempted to make 8,000 cookies in a single day at their San Mateo bakery.
“Bakers are flying between eight different stations and it’s like a hornet’s nest,” he reveals. “I make sure everyone has their coffee so they can be on fire. I try to coordinate everything so we all work toward the same goal.”
During the holiday season, François and Ingrid need to perform something of a Christmas miracle, baking and packaging nearly 40,000 cookies a week that are then shipped all across the country. When the orders start streaming in, they rely on support wherever they can find it. “If we say we aren’t going to make it, we have so many people who volunteer to help,” Ingrid says. François’s teenage children bring their friends, Ingrid’s family joins in—even grandmothers visiting from France have pitched in to fill boxes.
But the bakery’s business extends beyond cookie deliveries. Peninsula locals can satisfy their carb cravings at Bonjour Bakehouse Cafe, where flaky, buttery pastries are served hot from the oven daily. “I don’t get home with a bag of bacon scones without eating one in the car,” says customer Patty Mayer. “They are to die for and worth every calorie.” The menu includes dozens of options, from chocolatine croissants to scones flavored with smoked salmon or pear and cardamom. The coffee menu includes traditional espresso drinks plus inventive offerings such as Tokyo Fog Matcha and Ginger & Turmeric Chai. François scours the San Mateo Farmers Market for fruit and vegetables for their seasonal flavors and claims he would not step foot in most local grocery stores. “We would never use ingredients that are not the top,” he declares.
The French duo have another mission beyond baking—to share the connection they felt growing up with the people who made their food. “In France, when you go to the bakery, you know the owner,” says François. “This is what is missing here in the U.S.” Adds Ingrid, “We are part of the community here, and we know what is going on in our customers’ lives.”
Their patrons, in turn, feel a sense of connection and have even called from the freeway asking to reserve their favorite pastry. When Ingrid had to break the news to a regular customer that they were no longer able to make his favorite olallieberry scones, he offered to drive to Pescadero, pick up the berries and deliver them to the bakery himself.
François’s passion for baking began as a child in France, where he remembers the aroma of croissants hanging in the morning air in his neighborhood. “I was lucky enough to be raised in Bordeaux and the Basque Country,” he says. “There were phenomenal bakers and I would go to the farmers markets on a regular basis by myself or with my parents.”
A self-confessed gourmet and foodie, he says his happy place is in the kitchen. As a trained pastry chef, François studied and apprenticed for six years in France before working at top French restaurants in Tokyo, bakeries in Canada and finally as executive pastry chef at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco. “The food scene in France is a very high-pressure, super demanding environment to work in,” François confesses. “The French pastry chef I worked for at the Ritz used the intense French style in the kitchen and it didn’t go over well in America,” he says. “We had HR coming to the kitchen on a regular basis.” Eventually, La Boulange bakery hired François to open several shops before he launched Bonjour Bakehouse at San Mateo’s KitchenTown, a professional kitchen and incubator for culinary startups.
Ingrid brings business savvy to the partnership and her role requires her to make the tough decisions, like ending the bakery’s bread-making. “We made the best baguette I had ever had in the U.S.,” Ingrid says. “But it was costing too much.” While François was vacationing in France, she axed the bread program and broke the news to him when he returned.
Growing up in France, while Ingrid inherited a love for baking from her mother and grandmother, she pursued a mechanical engineering degree and wound up in Silicon Valley. She rose through the ranks working in management consulting and startups. “I burned myself out and needed to do something different,” she confesses. Ingrid decided to earn her baking certification and went back to France for the rigorous two-year training.
When François and Ingrid need to run taste tests, they rely on their families and friends as critics. “Our kids are foodies and always tell us what is missing in a dish,” says Ingrid with a smile. “We had some tasting sessions and invited our families and they were very strict with us.” Their friends have high expectations and demand perfection, she says. “They told us we could do better.” With the critics satisfied, the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce recently declared Bonjour Bakehouse the Best Bakery in San Mateo.
What makes the food culture so strong in France? Ingrid points to the schools and the way French children are raised. “From the ages of 3 to 18 years you are seated at a table of six kids and served one meal at lunch,” she describes. ”You sit for 30 minutes and have to try everything, sometimes crazy stuff.” At home, many children spend time in the kitchen in France as well and there is an emphasis on eating together.
Ingrid and François plan to expand locally and say they are ready to bring baguettes back to the menu sometime soon. “I believe in making a few things really, really well,” François sums up. “I need to make food—it is
my world.”