Amy Guittard, Chief Marketing Officer at Guittard Chocolate Company, is the great-great-granddaughter of Guittard's founder. As the fifth-generation of the family business her great-great-grandfather started in 1868, Amy has an innate passion for cocoa and chocolate. In addition to leading Guittard's marketing department and spearheading the development of the brand, Amy’s involvement at Guittard also includes sourcing and sustainability, serving on several committees for the World Cocoa Foundation, and traveling to origin to meet with farmers, buyers, and traders. She continues Guittard’s long-standing tradition of collaborating on the ground with those closest to the source.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How and why Amy’s Great-Grandfather started the company
• The changes Amy’s father Gary gradually introduced into Guittard
• Guittard’s process of sourcing cacao beans
• The company’s involvement in pre- and post-harvesting processes
• How Guittard develops a new chocolate product
• The significance of chocolate percentages
• Guittard’s involvement in heirloom cacao preservation
• Sustainability and long-term company goals
• And much more!

Martin Sorge is a baker, recipe developer, and food writer based in Chicago, IL. A tried-and-true Midwestern native from Fort Wayne, IN, Martin’s passion for baking dates back to his early childhood when he accidentally set a microwave on fire while attempting to make a “biscuit” out of a few simple ingredients. Despite that setback, Martin forged ahead with his love of food to become a self-trained home baker, educating himself on the variety of baking techniques through cookbooks, blogs, friends, learning from mistakes, and lots of eating. He started by baking simple breads and cookies before incorporating more complex dishes to his repertoire, which quickly garnered interest from his friends, family, and community. Looking to share his love for baking with the world, Martin competed in his first-ever baking competition, The Great American Baking Show, and judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith named him the winner in 2023.

Today, Martin takes his approachable Midwestern roots, his homebase of Chicago, and his not-too-serious (sometimes corny) personality and combines those with his nerdy technical knowledge to create accessible recipes for the home cook. When he’s not in the kitchen baking up a storm, Martin enjoys board games, jumping in lakes, exploring places near and far with his husband, and his newfound hobby—pottery. (Now he can make the cake and the cake plate.) Follow along with Martin’s baking adventures via Instagram @martinsorge, TikTok @martinsorge, Twitter @martinsorge, his website martinbakes.com, and his Substack newsletter: Great Bakes.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Martin’s food-centric Midwest family nurtured his love of cooking
• How determination, research and hard work turned Martin into a talented baker
• Martin’s career as a consultant in economic development for small businesses
• His top survive-and-thrive tips for owners of small food-related businesses
• Surviving the application process for The Great American Baking Show
  
• The dirty details: what it’s really like to compete on The Great American Baking Show
• Some of the things Martin's working on now, from recipe development to his Substack newsletter
• And much more!

Episode Sponsored by
Republica Del Cacao

This podcast is sponsored by Republica Del Cacao. Say hello to this authentic Latin American Chocolate! They are a local brand with a global impact! The value of their products begins in the hands of their allied farmers, whose raw materials reach their team. Through processes of excellence, they transform them to create fine origin chocolate enjoyed by Chefs and Chocolate enthusiasts in more than 20 countries, as a community and a brand, they are changing the world, one cacao bean at a time!

Based in Los Angeles, California, Chef Mario Bacherini is the West Coast Pastry Chef of L’École Valrhona, where is he is in charge of conducting classes, demonstrations and workshops for professionals, providing one-on-one culinary consultations and bringing Valrhona’s expert touch to the West Coast. After graduating from culinary school in Florence, Italy, Chef Bacherini went on to do his apprenticeship as a chocolatier. He began working in Michelin-starred restaurants across Italy and France until he decided to settle in Perpignan, France, where he trained under Olivier Bajard (Meilleur Ouvrier de France). In 2008 he moved to Paris, where he worked at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée with French Pastry World Champion Christophe Michalak. Four years later, Bacherini left Paris for New York City, where he took on the role of Executive Pastry Chef at Nobu, managing three restaurants. While in New York, he also traveled the world to teach pastry masterclasses in various countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Italy and France, as well as the United States. In 2017, he moved to Los Angeles where he began his own consulting company, providing consulting for bakeries, pastry shops and restaurants, and later on had the opportunity to work side by side with one of the best pastry chefs in the world, Amaury Guichon, in his newly opened school in Las Vegas. Chef Bacherini continued to deliver his expertise across the United States and abroad until he got the call from Valrhona to join their North America team at the beginning of 2023.

In this episode we discuss:

• Bacherini’s challenging childhood and how he became interested in pastry
• Attending culinary school in Florence
• How he snagged his apprenticeship with a top-notch chocolatier
• Moving to France to work for Olivier Bajard, M.O.F.
• Working with French Pastry World Champion Christophe Michalak at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée
• Landing the position of Executive Pastry Chef at Nobu in NYC
• His experience teaching masterclasses around the globe
• How he became West Coast Pastry Chef for L’École Valrhona
• A typical day at the office for Chef Bacherini
• The importance of using high quality ingredients and staying “authentic”
• And much more!