We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ben & Lauren Kallenbach a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ben & Lauren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?
We both worked with the same Executive Pastry Chef for several years during our tenure with The Ritz-Carlton. Chef Antony Fernandez was absolutely instrumental in helping guide our path to where we are today. Lauren started with Chef Antony as an intern while attending Johnson & Whales University and remained on his team after graduating from school. Ben joined the team at The Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynold’s Plantation after previously working in Chicago and St. Louis.
In 2009, after a few years in Georgia, we both went with Chef Antony to The Ritz-Carlton Bahrain to further our careers under his tutelage. Everyday in the kitchen there is something we learned under his direction that we still use. Our leadership styles and mentality in the kitchen was influenced and formed under his guidance. While we both teach, lead and create in our own ways, there are very defined similarities that are a result of his impact on our careers. The two things that resonate the most, and show up constantly, is to let our team make mistakes and to use those as teaching moments and to never settle for just ok.
The growth of our team is a direct reflection of us, we can’t do everything alone and we are only as strong as they are. So it only makes sense to pour as much energy into their development as we possibly can. Giving them the opportunity to have hand’s on experience with errors, how to resolve them, how to learn from them and how to catch them before they happen is key to learning and growing in the kitchen.
Also, our drive to never settle for ok was definitely influenced by Chef Antony. Just good enough was never acceptable. Our creations need to be satisfying on multiple levels. One of the biggest ways this stood out was when we created any type of show piece, we had to make sure their was decoration and finishing all the way around it. They were always visually enticing from all 360 degrees. Our plated desserts had to have visual, textural and taste elements to them. There’s was always a way to add more “finesse.” Always striving to exceed our guest’s expectations and to push our own limits.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Lauren has been in the food and beverage field since her first job at 15 years old! After graduating high school in Georgia she attended Johnson & Whales University in Charleston. Her internship at The Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynold’s Plantation led her into the hotel world where she stayed for close to a decade. Lauren moved to Bahrain for 2 years and then moved to The Cayman Islands. While living on Grand Cayman, Lauren helped open a restaurant, had a stint at a fine dining restaurant and ultimately became the Pastry Chef at the Marriott Grand Cayman. During her time there she helped lead the culinary team through renovations and a restuarant rebrand. After relocating back to the US and the Charlotte area, Lauren started a home based bakery while raising her young children. The success of the bakery led to a stint in private label food as the lead product developer for a brand new bread program that was introduced into Harris Teeter, Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores. Ultimately her passion for classic French pastry and clean label, local ingredients brought her back to her own products and opening her own bakery.
After graduating from High School, Ben studied engineering at the University of Michigan. During his time at UM he worked multiple food service jobs and unkowingly fell in love the the food and beverage world. After this realization, he moved to Chicago and attended Kendall College. During Ben’s time in Chicago he worked at the prestigous Peninsula Hotel. The itch to travel soon hit and he relocated to St. Louis to join the team at The Renaissance Hotel and then transferred to Georgia to join the team at The Ritz-Carlton. This brought Ben and Lauren together and then led him to become the Assistant Pastry Chef at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain. After a couple years in the MIddle East, Ben moved into the Executive Pastry Chef role at The Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman and eventually was the Regional Pastry Chef Advisor for the Caribbean. He assisted in opening the Ritz-Carlton Aruba during his time in that role. Upen relocating back to the US with Lauren and family, Ben was the Executive Pastry Chef at The Ballantyne Hotel and helped grow that program and develop a local, seasonal based menu concept for desserts at The Gallery restaurant. After also having a brief stint in private label food production, Ben has solely focused on the opening and growth of Virtuoso Breadworks, working alongside Lauren.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Our reputation is the key to success in our field. There are so many options for bread and pastries that we could be considered a luxury or non-neccesity item. Ensuring that every single product, every single day, every single time is that the highest possible level we can make is the key. We are open and transparent about every ingredient we use, every process we implement, the mistakes we make, the successes we see and why we bake things a certain way. We understand that we make mistakes, own those mistakes, apologize for not exceeding our guest’s expectations and rectify the situation. Without being this open, this honest, this transparent, we are just another person making bread and cookies.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Treat them like humans! Set your standards and expectations high and teach them how to get there. Every bit of knowledge you have, share that. We work day in and day out, side by side with our team. There is nothing we ask them to do that we won’t do ourselves. When we make mistakes, we own those, explain what went wrong and how to fix it. When they make mistakes, we do it exactly the same way. Everything is an opporunity to learn and grow. Without our team, we wouldn’t survive.
There are times of the year where we spend more time with them then we do with our at home family. They are all an extension of our family and we try our best to look at them that way. Knowing their interests, asking how their day’s off were, checking after their kids or schoolwork, etc. If they know you care and that you value their time, efforts and energy, your team is going to be willing to follow you through the hardest of times, knowing the end goal will be worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.virtuosobreadworks.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/virtuosobread
- Facebook: facebook.com/virtuosobreadworks