(Owner of Krumbs Cakes)
At a very young age Christian Roder found his calling in life.
And that calling was baking.
He’s traveled extensively throughout the world and now calls San Francisco home with his bakery Krumbs Cakes.
Christian Roder talked with us about his life.
Q – Christian, you’ve got kind of a catchy name for your business. Who came up with that?
A – So, actually a friend of mine came up with it. He drew a logo on a napkin and I said, ‘I can deal with that’. That’s how it happened.
Q – Was your friend in the baking business?
A – No. Actually he’s a computer programmer. He also put together my first website which was just like something on a whim. But yeah, that’s how we started off. Very organic. (laughs).
Q – What really stands out is how you found your passion very early in life. How many people can say or do that?
A – That’s true and I’m very happy because there’s a lot of people out there who maybe have an idea of what they want to do but the environment, parents or society sends them in a different direction. But, my parents were like, you do what you want to do as long as you do a good job and you work hard, we don’t care.
I never even went to high school. I started working like 2 months before my 15th birthday. I moved out of my parent’s house. I moved to the other side of Austria and I never looked back.
Q – Your parents were not in the baking business were they?
A – No.
Q – Did you go to a culinary school?
A – Well, I’m a chef by trade.
I did an apprenticeship for a chef in Austria at a ski resort. Over there if you do that you work basically 10 months of the year and then 2 months of the year you go to like vocational school they call it in the U.S.
So, you learn bookkeeping. You have to polish up on your English and French. You have to have at least two foreign languages. You have to learn the basic cuisines.
He wants to make sure if you open your own business that you have the basic understanding that cooking alone does not necessarily run a business. You have to do bookkeeping. You have to do ordering and budgeting. So, that’s what you learn in school there.
Q – Were you an apprentice to some of the Top pastry chefs in Austria?
A – I wasn’t necessarily an apprentice. I was a chef departie at this hotel. The pastry chef there was a 2 or 3 time world champion already. He used to work in Asia, like Singapore. He became a very good friend of mine but I was always interested in baking and pastries. After my 8 or 9 hour shift I worked for another 2 or 3 hours with him just to learn because usually you don’t have the opportunity to work with people like that on a regular basis.
The way it used to be is if you got to work with somebody like that they won’t give you the recipes. Everything is very hush, hush, hush.
You get to peel the apples but you never learn how to make the dough.
I was very lucky. He really took me under his wings and he showed me a lot of stuff.
I just e-mailed him last week. Now he owns a hotel in Austria and I’m continuing his legacy. (laughs)
Q – You also worked for Windstar Cruises. What were you for them? Were you an executive chef? A pastry chef?And how did that experience add to your overall knowledge of baking? I think you like to travel.
A – Yes. My mom told me a drew pictures in kindergarten of me cooking on a ship. Again, that was my long term vision. I was super lucky. I regular newspapers they’re always looking for chefs to go on a cruise ship. You have to be 21 ‘cause it’s American law. There’s alcohol and long working hours. So, in May 1989 I was 21 and a half and actually I was interviewed by the cousin of Louie Vuitton in Paris. So, I had to fly to Paris, go to his office and he interviewed me.
He said, ‘Your qualifications and resume’ works great with me.’
I was supposed to go in September. Someone would come meet me on the ship and I said. ‘That’s great’.
I already had a job lined up in Interlaken in Switzerland and suddenly I got a phone call at 10 o’clock at night , ‘Hey, we have an opening. Can you join us in Saint-Tropez the day after tomorrow?’ I said, ‘Yup’.
‘We’ll send you the ticket. Pack your suitcase.’
Q – How long did you work for Windstar Cruises?
A – Six years I think. I started as a chef departie in an old French kitchen as the only guy who was not French in that kitchen. It was slightly difficult in the beginning but I became a sous chef after 6 months. The French chef promoted me over all the French guys which again did not go over well with the other guys.
But then, a year and a half later that same chef was the Senior Executive Chef for the cruise line and another chef broke his leg.
So, he said I’m ready and promoted me to Executive Chef.
I was an Executive Chef when I was 23 on the Windstar Cruise Line. (laughs).
Nowadays it’s changed a lot.
I would get money from the purser and go shopping. I’d buy fresh fish. In Italy I’d go out and buy cheese, fresh bread, fresh fish, fresh cold cuts, and meats locally at the markets. Sometimes I took some of the passengers. On the cruise ship it’s all about ratings. If your ratings are great they love you. You still have to have cooking skills, but you don’t really cook much. You just entertain the passengers.
So, I took the ladies shopping and it was super, super exciting for them.
In the beginning all the pastry chefs were European, but then the co. tried to save money so 6 months after I took over my kitchen was all Filipino and I had to do a lot of teaching.
One day you’re in Spain, the next day you’re in France, the next day you’re in Italy and the next day you’re in Croatia. Then you’re in Greece.
So, basically your menu changes according to the country you’re in on a daily basis.
Good luck finding guys you can take and say, ‘O.K. Your menu is French on Monday, on Tuesday it’s Spanish and Wednesday it’s Italian. Then you have to teach a guy.
So, the challenge skill was great. I learned a lot. I could teach a lot. Everyday was new foods, your fresh foods.
Money was not a problem then. That was like in the late 80’s, early 90’s and the passengers would pay like $1,200-$1,500 a day and we had 150 passengers and 100 crew which is unheard of nowadays.
Today you have 100 crew and 1,000 passengers.
The service was incredible. At that time we were rated Number 0ne or Number Two in the world. So, it was very prestigious to work on the ships.
Basically I didn’t do a lot of baking or teaching but as I said earlier there was a lot of entertainment for the passengers.
So, I did like strudel classes. In Austria we made apple strudel and you pull the dough like paper thin. We did a lot of these. We did Vegetable carvings. Fruit carvings.
I was always in touch with my pastry side but it was not my main focus.
I traveled the world. I was twice around the world before I was 24.
Q – After Windstar you decided to open your own bakery in San Francisco. That had to be expensive. Where did the money come from to do that? Did you go to a bank for a loan?
A – So, that was different. Before I signed my contract ( with Windstar) I was supposed to go over to Asia again and my co. put me in San Francisco and hooked me up with 6 or 7 restaurants.
You’d go eat dinner, talk to chefs and maybe work in the day and they’ll show you all the tricks. And it’s boring to go to nice restaurants by yourself and have dinner every night.
I met this lady and I took her to dinner every night and then a year later we got married. That’s how I got to the United States.
In the beginning I could not find a job because everybody said you’re over qualified. If we hire you after a few months you’ll leave us but you don’t have the experience in the U.S. so we don’t know if we can hire you for this position.
So, I was literally selling ice-cream on a tricycle for a year. I could not find a job. I couldn’t find a job as a chef.
Then I got hired as a delivery driver for a catering co. Because I wasn’t working I was playing a lot of soccer was talking to one of my soccer buddies one day.
He said, ‘So, you’re a chef?’
Yeah. I told him a little bit.
He was like,’ Why don’t you go over to this restaurant. Do you know this restaurant?’
I’ve heard about it. I’ve never been there.
‘Just go over there tomorrow and tell them I sent you.’
So, I go there the next day. I find out he’s the CEO of the co. that owned 26 restaurants.
They were looking for a sous chef.
He said ‘Yeah, they told us you were coming today. You’re starting as a sous chef tomorrow. Just sign your papers.’
I worked there for 3 or 4 years. I was sous chef and then became an Executive chef.
I met this Swedish guy playing soccer and he had a restaurant with a partner who had no restaurant experience.
I went there. I saw there was so much potential.
He said, ‘Yeah. My partner wants to get out. She will make you a great deal. She’ll work with you.’
So, basically I bought into a restaurant without having to go to a bank.
The restaurant was in debt.
It was a big risk for me to go into debt. Within a year of taking over we got out of the red and were actually making money. I mean the potential there was incredible if you do a good job and know how to run a kitchen.
So, we upped the quality. It was just like a breakfast place. We opened from 7 in the morning ‘til like 3 in the afternoon. Then usually in the evenings and on weekends we would rent the place out for events for catering. So, there were nice little bonuses and that’s how I have my own restaurant.
Q – Do you have any celebrities come through your doors that you care to mention?
A – There’s not that many really world-wide celebrities that are here.
I mean we’ve made a cake for George Lucas. I made birthday cakes for Phil Lesh from The Grateful Dead for a couple of years. We did a cake for one of the guys in Metallica.
©Gary James
Official website: krumbscakes.com
