Everything has aligned for Alexis Krausz to become un boulanger: a baker. He was born to it through a mother from France, he said, where baking is a national art form and an artful science. Krausz makes some of the French-iest breads in Powell River.
“About six years ago, my mom, who is French, ordered a book about how to make artisan bread with minimal effort,” said the 20-year-old baking sensation. “That’s how I started.”
Krausz sets up at Powell River Farmers’ Market every weekend, always has a lineup at his stand and will often sell out before the market closes.
According to Krausz, business has been very good, built on what he has learned through books and his own experimentation in the kitchen where he bakes everything using his family’s one oven.
“I was looking in a book and there was just something about making artisan bread that kind of captivated me, so I started making all of the bread at home, and after a year or two I moved on to more advanced methods,” he said. “I read a lot of books by bakers who had learned European methods.”
Krausz is drawn to baking breads like any artisan who finds his or her trade through making things by hand.
“I have brioche, which is like an enriched bread, a French specialty enriched with egg and butter, so not very sweet, but rich,” he said, “and then I do pastries as well, and three variations of croissant.”
Krausz said his approach and technique is old world.
“It’s something about the visceral creativity of it, using time-honoured methods, and something you can do at home with just minimal equipment,” he said. “It’s also something people really enjoy and appreciate, so that’s what attracted me to it.”
When his family moved to Powell River, Krausz and his parents planned for him to sell his bread commercially.
“When the opportunity came up here at the farmers’ market, that’s when I started last summer,” he said. “I’ve been doing it for about a year now.”
Krausz’s work ethic and his pain aux raisins, or raisin bread, has caught the attention and admiration of market manager Juhli Jobi.
“No one in his family has a car, so he takes his big bag of flour down to the bus stop by the Legion and then he hoofs it home,” said Jobi. “He loads the bread up in a children’s bike trailer he puts behind his bicycle and then cycles all the bread up to the market. Sometimes when he has more than he can manage, his family walks up with him.”
Currently, Krausz is taking some online classes through Vancouver Island University, but he does not plan on putting away his oven mitts any time soon.
