Hidden Gems: Meet Christie Rich of The Bread Chic

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christie Rich.

Hi Christie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always loved to bake and learned at an early age from my mom. We baked everything from scratch and with love. I never thought about baking as a career until I started working as a pastry chef at a restaurant called Oliver’s in Sheridan, WY. It was there that I fell in love with baking bread. I was given the freedom to create and experiment with many different types of bread to sell in the side wine, cheese, and bread shop. I worked hard to learn all I could about bread and the fascinating art that it is.

While working there, the owner/chef mentioned that I should sell bread at the local farmers’ market that was starting up. It was a new concept to me but I was willing to give it a shot. I’m glad I listened because I instantly loved being at the farmers market and was selling out of bread sometimes before the market started! It was so much fun and I began to learn a lot about running a business. Through the years I participated in local farmers’ markets in a few different towns that I lived in but didn’t take it seriously enough to go full force. That all changed when I moved to Fort Collins in 2015. I decided I would go all in and start a home bakery utilizing the Colorado cottage food law. It was tough and rewarding all at once. I sold bread and pies at many markets in the area and once I had a good customer following, I started to sell out faster and faster. It became apparent that I needed to find a way to make more bread and pies to fill the demand I was experiencing. I decided it was time to rent a commissary kitchen so I could produce more products to sell at farmers’ markets. It was a scary step but I knew it was going to be worth it. Now I’m taking an even more exciting and terrifying step, opening a retail bakery!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Some of the obstacles I have experienced are mostly production-related. When I was baking in my home kitchen, I could not bake enough bread to meet demand. Baking in a commissary kitchen also has challenges, such as time allowed in the kitchen and it is expensive to rent a kitchen by the hour when you are a baker. Now I am working hard to open my retail bakery and am faced with a new set of challenges. There are a lot of details to get through when opening a retail business but I am confident I will get there soon!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The Bread Chic is known for Sourdough bread and fruit pies! We sell a lot of them, in all different flavors and varieties. We use all organic Colorado-grown flour, butter in our pie crust and source locally whenever possible, so you can be sure you are getting quality artisan baked goods. We will soon have a brick-and-mortar location in Old Town Fort Collins where the community can come get bread, pies, and other goodies year-round as well as all week. It will be a fun place where you can watch the crew rolling bread and pies while sipping a great cup of coffee and enjoying a yummy treat. We will also have local products like kombucha, coffee cups, coffee, milk, ice cream, and much more to go along with your Bread Chic goodies.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
The best advice I can give you is to make sure you have a good product. If you don’t, you can always improve it by researching and practicing your craft. When I first started out, my bread was not that good and I had my share of brick bread, but I kept working on it and improving it until I got it down. I still work on improving my goods. I am always learning new things to incorporate and will never stop experimenting with new ideas to make them better. There is always room for improvement!

It is also important to take care of yourself! Running a business takes so much time and energy. It is hard to make time for yourself but it is imperative to do that. If you get burned out, or sick, who will run your business? Eat good food, get rest, and try to do things you love whenever you can.

Contact Info:

• Email: christie@thebreadchic.com
• Website: thebreadchic.com
• Instagram: @thebreadchic
• Facebook: facebook.com/thebreadchic
• Twitter: @thebreadchic
• Youtube: thebreadchic

Image Credits:
Christie Rich Justin Snapp