 It took 18 weeks for this business license to come When I thought it could have taken just maybe a week Yeah, okay 18 weeks running a bakery is the dreams of many out there and today We have the honor of interviewing Remy a French Asian baker out there He's one of Vancouver's up-and-coming most promising bakers That's the reason why I'm super excited to share with you guys some of the behind-the-scenes of how he is building his brand new Location Remy Patisserie now. Let's go and have a chat with him Hello friends today. We have Remy here and we're gonna be basically diving a little bit more deeper into his story And as you can see right now behind us This is his new location. It's not done yet, but you can see that he's actually built everything himself You know, like I think he's definitely a success in the making. I don't know if he knows it himself But yeah, I want to be able to share with you guys like the really behind the scenes of Building this place up and I think what better time to actually document that and share with you guys his learnings his stories Coming from a front of the house staff To being a pastry chef to coming out on his own running an Instagram business bakery and now having his own story And so I started as a as a dishwasher and then I kind of liked the environment of the kitchen Because it's very hectic and I and plus I didn't know what to do after high school because I didn't like Go to school I can't I can't jump in from places places because I wanted to just grow faster and faster because if you're in this industry You know, you you can you can get stuck in the same The kitchen is really big so you're gonna be stuck in the same doing the same thing over and over again And he gets boring and one is that the best for you know, what you're Not in the management position. Yeah, so I kept Jumping from from restaurant to restaurant and then afterward I was Hit chop, you know, I Was working in their pastry section and that's where I kind of started to felt Dessert making because it was That's a cool environment is like around it fire people I'm going to yell at you like yeah, because the chef is really, you know, like not Demanding but it's it's it's when you're in the pastry section. It feels like a little bit Calm, yeah, it's just like you still have that hectic environment. You still enjoy that. Yeah You still have to go go go. Yeah at the same time. It's like a little bit more relaxing. Yeah to like when these the dessert tastes a Bit more finesse, I would say to to make So it's not like cooking where everything is done at a minute Which is like you cook and then someone eats it. He's already have to make it practice a long time ago So it's all about like organization and My mind is like I need to plan like yeah a lot a lot a lot a lot and I over plan usually so I kind of like He's right after after that. I moved to instead of restaurant. I did Big bakery, so I was working in a bakery all she could stuff where Kind of learn all the basic like traditional French pastry over there and then After three years working for him To come out and do it on my own and where I was thinking I needed to open my own store That's the only next step. I think I can think of so I need to learn how to make Coffee because when you have a big we use coffee is like second second menu. Yeah So that's where I Was looking for a coffee game job while looking switching for a space Yeah, and I hit Oreo in Richmond where the owner was a wine fanatic and he also loves coffee And I have zero background in coffee, but he trusted me because I have pastry background Sorry working for him and he was very like helpful in my progress in the coffee Field I felt a little bit like just like every job like I feel like after I have a certain point I hate a point where like there's no growing. Yeah, and then I said, okay, where should I go now a chef when I used Kira she's in Toronto, so she's a chef I used to work with and she are she asked me if I wanted to go to tomorrow too because she's opening a huge bakery facility that it's like I 6,000 And she asked me to go be there head baker So I was retempted because oh, yeah, because I feel like Vancouver just kind of there was nowhere to go anymore so I Was trying I was thinking again. I'm gonna go but then I was also Thinking after maybe after two years or one year I might hit the same problem. I'm going to have nowhere else to go So what is my where is my ultimate goal? Actually my ultimate goal I think was to create something like have my own freedom and have my own store Do whatever I want I said, okay instead of going all the way there, which takes a lot of like Courage because you have to go for everything if you have a house Anything you have to like give it away and all the connections that I make here I have to like basically like say bye-bye, right? Yeah, so I wasn't ready for for well I was ready for that, but I was thinking if I had all that courage to give up all of that Why don't use this courage to open my own store even if it's like a small one so So I was thinking okay while working at Oregon I would also do a side gate, which is like based on thing and then sell it online so I found a Kitchen this cafe Sweet girl the owner a sweet girl was my friend. He was a Coffee fan like like me and talk about coffee And then he told me that he had a big kitchen and he didn't need me most of it Yeah, so he was looking for someone to sublease it So I said Please tell me more about like okay transition now from you paid baking and you entering this Space and starting your Instagram. How did you? build that your name for yourself, uh We don't know how I did that Well, you know when I started Really hard to market yourself. Hmm. So when I came out like nobody no more Yeah, my friends and colleague so to get people to know me it was was was hard the first few months I Was just a superl and I was just making stuff over there and selling it in his shop Yeah, so through his customer. So he has like like food for traffic And basically to each customer I was selling my page fee and I was talking to them and I'm telling his customer Yeah, yeah, and basically how I started by using other people's like Customers traffic. So my pop. So I did pop up Difference I said so after a sweet girl. That's where I did everything and sell a little bit over there and moving coffee was one of my favorite coffee shop and Edmund was is my friend and he was he allowed me to use his space on a Sunday to to basically come over his shop and and sell my pastries and That really helped me because like he had a lot of like great Food traffic and people who wants to his to also drinks his coffee like they have they want something special So I kind of like his customer So it was a perfect environment to for me to introduce my pastry to Vancouver. That helped me Catapult to Why I am to someone oh Yeah, yeah, so doing pop-up. It's it's a way for me to like market myself Just I did I do Instagram at the same time, but I I do it by myself I'm not great, but At first I suppose that once a picture yeah every two days now Like I'm very lazy So that's all really helpful. Yeah, I want to market yourself like but I have no time to get them doing everything by myself Yeah, I mark it I sell everything and I clean everything is me Corporate I got time. Were you still working? No, I already think I was cousin so in February that's when I talked to two girls Yeah, my business and in March I quit my job Because that I felt like I if I wanted to do something well, I need to put a hundred percent. How scary was that? What did you want to do traffic coming in? No, I'm very little traffic and wasn't making money was just not making money was just like Testing the water that you have every investment you have to like Confess yeah, you have to put some money and then and see if that money is going to return I mean maybe you're gonna lose it. So that was every business is kind of like a gamble. Yeah, so But you trusted yourself and you trusted that instinct. That was the right move I have Like put out like this is the money I'm going to burn. Yeah If I burn it, it's fine I'm not gonna buy and I think it's not gonna hurt me So that I put out a chunk of money and I say, okay, this is how is how much I'm going to use to start my business and if that that's over then For you to have that courage to do that that's that's awesome because I know a lot of people actually They want to but the fear of jumping into the wild jumping through the darkness is so real Like there's no safety net know nothing You might be asking like the rough range of how much you you're like, this is my mom's a 30k 50k. Yeah, I started with 30k you're like, that's my budget. I'm gonna throw 30k in there and invest my time and see where it brings me Yeah, that's awesome. But afterward that 30k was like like very limited So I put in another like 20k after like a half a year. So yeah, because you see that there's Working And then and then like that grew by wildfire like I think once you started to do the pop ups And then as you grow that and as you more and more people know about you as people are more tagging you It just kind of caught and it's just tip the scale and you just became super busy from there onwards, right? Yeah, right, and I guess like when you're pulling in that much traffic like and at one point You were creating like what 200 cakes all by yourself for Christmas. Tell me about that story Well, that was It well, it didn't it didn't cut it like it wasn't that fast to get to 200 What was that duration? Was that a year or yeah, that was like a good Yeah, like ten months. Ten months is very fast my friend for you to get that traction Like to be able to have that kind of traction. That's really fast but there was a time where it was really slow as well In after summer fall time was like super slow Yeah, and for sure and also there was a lot of like a struggle finding a spot to sell because why I Selling my my kind of HP during pop-up is very dependent on the location where I am So it doesn't matter so it's not like I can go anywhere and sell and still have a lot of food traffic People don't really want to travel to work or something like so they want to stick around the To see if I went for example all the way to UBC Which is only to West people are not going to like travel from from all the way east to To UBC just to buy my pastries like it's so the location of where I do my pop-up is very important And at some point I didn't have The best location so my myself was down a lot even though people like know about me But I wasn't like that Yeah, until I Stuck to one place which is sweet girl like where I produce my stuff So I said like I'm not gonna go anywhere cafe because Traveling with my all my pastries to one place is also very tiring. Yeah, so delicate. Yes It's super careful. Yeah, and then you have to like Like make sure everything it's really cold before you put in your form because it's summer So you have to like all that little like it's just so hectic Yeah, so it's it was very just easier to stick a one place one place at some point because I already had a little bit of Following yeah, so I just take that sweet girl even though she girl It's pretty far like like all my customer are pretty much in the east side or east side like Middlesex city center for them to go to Shoot the sweet girl. It's a bit far, but since like I stayed there and I said I'm gonna go nowhere else So and also like Even though it's not Like it's not you want to serve. It's not like what I want to say, but it's not the Geographic that you can't hear just it took a little bit longer to grow my Business there. So it did. Okay. So tell me about the 200 cake story Like I really want to make sure that we get into that. Okay. Yeah, so so from okay from October to November It started to grow. Yeah, once it hit Christmas every business. Yeah, it's crazy I saw it December. I saw it to announce that I'm going to do this this Dushin away this like this cake, yeah for Christmas and people have to start the order Yeah, people knew that if they want that cake, they have to tell me that that's yeah Yeah, I tell everybody that it's only me who's who's baking. So the first week of December. I start taking orders Yeah, I think of the eye. I have like Sorry guys, I have to cut the orders. Yeah, and I was like way overpassed. Yeah, I think I could have done Yeah, so So I stopped around 150 but I still took a few more because my friend said, oh, I didn't know you you're already Yeah, you have a deadline. Mmm. So I said, okay, I'm fine. I'll take a few more So then I had like 200 cakes Yeah, it took me so during that so 24 was Christmas Eve So everything was was people will come and pick up But I cannot make 200 for Christmas Eve. So I just like like staggered like staggered How hectic is it when you are preparing so many things? I set for hours for For two days, basically. Wow. I kept so I worked in the overnight and I only went to Went home to shower and just to eat and come back in the morning around 2 a.m To see anything over you to do it to finish the cakes and cut it and pack it Yes, I have to like Yeah One of the things I really kind of bother me about you is I don't even hire people to help you out Like why do you want to put yourself through the nightmare and even for this place? Like I think like you do decently well for yourself. I would say right and you've been busy Why why are you going to hire help? Yeah, I was going to hire help for actually I did hire help for Christmas Yeah, just to help me like package the cakes so when you hire somebody to you know kitchen and I Should have hired way like before to change so I can change them, right? But it comes Christmas December, and I'm so busy There's no time to like like hold somebody's hand Yeah, sure you think it's them because that will actually slow me down So so I rather just do it on myself. Yeah, I got time. Okay. Yeah Because I didn't know that what I was going to be so easy I guess September to November was slow. It was slow. It was dead You're like, you know what enough with this pop-up space thing Like I'm gonna start building my own and that's kind of when this whole thing Conceptualized after the Christmas time. You're like, you know what it's time. It's time for you to have your own space Yeah, at some point I Share indication. It's it's not it's not really bad with super all day They're very accommodating but at some point I feel like I'm kind of like in their way because they also need the kitchen I'm I'm growing so I think I I'm going to a point where I'm actually using his his part of the fridge So when I'm using this part of so I feel like I'm stepping over too much So I have to like have so it wasn't able to contain So I had to like find a new space so and plus I didn't want to just Open Only once a week because that's all I could At Ford with one person work like myself. Yeah, so I needed a space where I can open More like hours. Yeah, I grew my business faster. Yeah, so I needed to have my own space So that's where I found this location It's not huge, but this is where my money can take me So, yeah, it's fun. I mean, it's it's amazing like for you to actually commit to this now You put all the profits all the money you made you're gonna roll it back into the space. Yeah, build your own thing again Yes, so we invest everything that's amazing And I guess like what are some of the challenges struggles because we're sharing with me like it's a headache dealing with this You know when I took over this space It's kind of like my fault to like Like knowing how this this system works because the system is very complicated Mm-hmm. See it's very like there's so many process so many steps So this this this place that I Right now it's zone to to be able to like bake in here to have a bakery Except that the previous owner she didn't she didn't have she was also doing kicks But she didn't make her own. She didn't use an oven. So basically this store It was In the city's eye this door is not big So when I when I took over I said I'm going to transfer the business license And I'm gonna actually get as it is. I'm not changing anything. Hopefully that with that They will just give it to me really good License right because I'm not doing anything. I'm just doing the same thing as previous owner and It took 18 weeks for this business license to come When I thought it could have taken just maybe a week. Yeah, it took 18 weeks Yeah, so that's also because of COVID-2, you know The CD could shut down and the last people are not Working full-time working at home too. So everything was back a lot. So my application didn't arrive to someone's hand until like a few weeks after I submitted them Just back, you know, and then plus it took a lot more time to process it So 18 weeks after I got my business license. So I thought okay now I can just like get an nutrition come in and click it in but I Didn't know that being a new tenant in a space. I needed to apply for a building permit One small small stuff I need to do. I need to get a building permit and right now If I start now, we will take another 7 to 14 weeks. So that's gonna be like until the end of the year Yeah, basically, I cannot think in this in this location or for another like three months or so That's crazy. So from the moment that you sign this list, it's almost seven months. Yeah, but you can't do anything Yeah, I cannot I cannot think here, but I can I can run a business a business license I can cook I can so I can produce something some I can produce my my big good somewhere else and come here and sell it But that's a plan. That's a plan right now. So that's what I'm going to Re-event the previous location as we barrel big stuff there and finish it here and sell it here It's crazy because running a business is never really as you plan Yeah, you have a certain vision of like, hey, this is how everything is gonna plan out That's my vision. I've done this before so it's probably gonna work out And then all of a sudden you're like, wow, that's a seven month penalty. You're slapping on me Like what's going on with the hell? But I didn't think what I was telling you earlier. It's just like, you know what? It's just gonna go by in a blink of an eye and you're gonna come back to it like a year later. You're like, wow, I Built this place. Everything is running smoothly. I can bake in this place people are coming in It's gonna be my home and that's gonna win. Yeah, when that happens I'm gonna be super stoked and super happy but until then I'm just every day and I'm I'm just worried about like another struggle that will come. It will come, by the way The struggle from the city, you know, like that's the struggle I hate the most like going to the city Like I don't mind if I have struggle like other things other other things than like maybe like hiring Yeah, like people, you know, like corporate problems, you know, like that's I think that would be even better than like, I know that's pretty hard Hiring people, people have to go, people have to hire new people. That's gonna be an extra goal to like train people Yeah, yeah, do what I want to do And building a team from spirit in here. So that's gonna be really hard But this, I think, that's making me not be able to sleep every day. But you know what? Honestly, it's a one-time thing It's a one-time thing, yes, a one-perspective of things. Like hopefully it can be two times, like as you expand to another location But I think like it does get easier like problems come it does get easier and it's part of the process Once you start kind of feeling for it, you're like, okay, you know what now I can manage my own expectation So you can actually do some more prep work in advance so that we can kind of put it The next step would be like to, I'm thinking, to open just a bigger kitchen and work at a main kitchen And have this store as like a satellite So when I open the next one, I have a lot more training and experience So hopefully that next one will be a lot smoother than this one So much thanks and gratitude for you It was very fun telling you this story It reminds me where I started at the same time I get so like tired, not tired, but so busy these days with like worrying That I have folks on back who get the duty of opening all the business Exactly Awesome, definitely you guys stay tuned to Remy's story And I'll see you guys in the next video