Sun H.
5/5
Boulangerie Patisserie Luc
I met Luc Verbeke and Claudine Willaert <10 years ago. (I have not been in contact and hope this is their website.) They are the parents of David, who is currently here in USA studying English and Business. Luc and Claudine own and operate a bakery called Boulangerie Patisserie Luc in Ned, Belgium. Luc and Claudine are both kind, hardworking people. Luc looks like he has been eating the profits.
On a typical workday (Wednesday â Sunday), Luc wakes up at 2:30 AM. At 3 AM he starts baking breads. The breads are made with pure, high quality ingredients (flour, water, yeast, and salt) and no preservatives. By 6 AM, ~250 loaves of bread in 12 varieties (e.g. white, round, square, small, big, baguette) are freshly baked.
At 7:30 AM, Claudine opens the bakery. She provides customer service, slices the bread, and decorates the food. She also prepares the 7 and 10 grain cereals.
During the day, Luc makes croissants (including chocolate, raisin, crĂšme and raisin, dried fruit), muffins (including apple, lemon, chocolate chip), waffles (including with apricot, cherry, mixed fruit), and apple strudel.
The bakery is closed 1-2 PM for Lucâs and Claudineâs lunch break. During this time, Luc begins to make special items such as apple sugar and strawberry mocha pastries, little cookies, and butter chocolate.
Luc makes certain items seasonally. He makes ice cream during the spring and summer and for baptisms. He makes chocolate for Easter, autumn, Halloween, and Christmas. The chocolate is melted, molded, and carved. Chocolate is made with careful âto the pointâ precision. It canât be too hot or too cold, it must be made just right. Luc also makes massepin with almonds and sugar.
At 6:30 PM, they clean the bakery.
The weekends are extra busy so at this time, Luc works nocturnally. On Friday, he sleeps at 5 PM and wakes up at 9 PM and works until Saturday at noon. During this time, he works on special orders, such as little breads inside bread, breads with cheese, fish, and salami, and cakes. Luc sleeps Saturday 1â8 PM and works Saturday 9 PM until Sunday 10 AM.
Monday and Tuesday the bakery is closed and during that time Luc and Claudine do paperwork, banking, and food preparation.
I asked Luc if his customers know how hard he works. He said âno.â That is why I decided to write this story.
David tells me that the bakery is appreciated. On the weekend mornings there is a line to get into the bakery. Some customers come from 1 hour away and get 10 breads every 2 weeks. Recently they were asked to make a special order for the king of Belgium.
I look forward to visiting their bakery one day.
