Entrepreneurial Alumni

Callie Koch

Callie Koch

Posted 01 July 2015

London Program

August 2008 Intake


Callie, graduate of Colorado State University, is the "owner, operator, head baker and just about everything else of Ingrained Bakery. We make artisan sourdough breads and other baked goods that are sold to restaurants, cafes, grocery stores and at farmers markets. We will very soon be opening a store after having recently re-located to a new site.

I have always loved baking, cooking, and all things food, but my year in London was directly responsible for my passion for sourdough bread. While in London, I researched the artisan bakeries that were there (simply to find the best places to buy bread) and made a habit of going to those bakeries on the weekends. I started catching on to the fact that all the breads I liked the most from those places were sourdough. I decided to start experimenting with baking my own while I was living there. I fell in love with sourdough and bread baking! I brought the sourdough culture that I started in London back to the US when I came home and have kept it going ever since.

I knew when I moved back to the States that I wanted to work in the food industry, and baking if possible. I started working as a baker at a cafe (having no professional or formal baking experience or training, only my at-home baking practice). I soon took over operations of the bakery at the cafe and it became a separate business of my own. I expanded the wholesale operations greatly and started selling at local farmers markets. I have never done any advertising for the business and people find out about the bakery by word of mouth.
My future plans, are to open a retail shop in the new location, which will be happening this summer. I intend to steadily increase the retail side of the business, while maintaining the wholesale accounts. The business has a solid customer base of chefs and purveyors of food businesses who are wholesale clients, but I would like the bakery to have a bigger reputation and customer base of people who buy the bread for at home use.

My advice for people who want to establish a business, is to make a product or do a service for yourself that meets your standards before you try to sell it to others. If you can maintain the standards that satisfy yourself and keeps your passion for what you are doing, then you have a better chance of being happy and passionate in the long run when doing that product or service as a business and selling it to other people. Don't compromise your principles in order to satisfy somebody else".

We wish Callie every success with the opening of her retail outlet as she continues to expand her business this summer.