Job: Owner, A Toast to Bread Bakery

Salary: It's certainly not a job motivated by money ... I probably make less than a new college graduate.

Education: I earned a degree in teaching from Minnesota State University Moorhead. I taught ESL [English as a second language] for the Peace Corps in the Philippines and social studies for seven years after that. I also renovate kitchens, baths and apartments, part time.

Background: My wife is from the Philippines. My mother-in-law was a world-class cook; she had a bakery and a catering business. When I'd go to their home, off you would go to help them cook! Also, my wife's cousin had a similar background and she was my Spanish teacher so in my Spanish lessons we ended up talking more about food than language. My mother ... was a breadmaker in the traditional American way and my father liked good bread. Most artisan bread companies are Euro-centric and ours is, but through the lens of another culture.

How did you start the bakery? You fall into things that you're not necessarily driven to do or make a conscious decision to do. We used to have a restaurant 30 years ago. It failed, but it had some wonderful products that people kept asking us to make. We were just baking at home and selling to people. One day we got a call from a neighbor with a friend who owned a deli. She was looking for a bread to make her deli different from others. So that's how we started: It was one bread product. It was on the leading edge of the artisan bread movement. One thing led to another and we ended up in Kowalski's on Grand and Mississippi Market [in St. Paul], and it happened relatively quickly. We started at the [St. Paul] Farmer's Market shortly after we began ... as a way to promote our product. But it has become the savior of our business.

You mention that the bakery almost closed a few years ago. Why? There was a rising tide of bread companies, many of whom failed because of [the Dr. Robert] Atkins [diet, which stressed avoiding foods high in carbohydrates such as breads]. That was a primary reason, although not the only one.

You take a staple of life, and you trash it. That's what America did to the bread business for about 10 or 12 years, with a totally unjustified explanation for why they were doing it. One of the new phenomena we are seeing is the gluten-free phenomenon, which I am in the process of researching and developing.

What's your favorite part of the job? I love the research necessary to create things that might sell. Things that taste good and are good for you. It's a wonderful career in the sense that you are part of a staple of life and you get immediate gratification in what you do, you can see, you can taste what you've done.

HILARY BRUECK