Laura learned to love food as a kid in Wisconsin.  She would roam the backyards with neighborhood kids, poaching cherry tomatoes, chives and green beans from the large vegetable gardens planted by her old Polish neighbors and her mom, Joan, herself a fine cook and baker. 

After college, head filled with romantic and literary visions of the South, Laura moved to North Carolina where she talked her way into a baking job at a budding artisan bakery.  At Weaver Street she learned the vagaries of yeast, the quiet appeal of very early hours, and the need for good shoes.

Laura fell in love and moved to the Eastern Sierra in California to be with Fred.  There she cooked and baked professionally. She also occasionally packed loads up Mt. Whitney for pay. 

In 1998 Fred and Laura moved to Portland where Laura quickly joined the Grand Central Baking bread crew.  Since then she has baked bread and pastry, cooked, developed recipes and helped create the Commissary. 

Laura has taught classes in California and Oregon, and has appeared in numerous publications.  She has made everything from corn-dogs to home-cured pancetta to Szechuan clay-pot pork, with an almost equal amount of pleasure. She is also a pretty good cyclist.

Notable Accomplishments:

• Provided pastry to International Pinot Noir Celebration, McMinnville, OR 2001-2005.
• Taught Master Baking Class at Western Culinary Institute as part of the Bread Bakers Guild of America "Women of the Guild" Tour, 2008.
• Taught Puff Pastry class at Summerloaf Festival, 2006.
• Taught Fruit Tart class at Sur La Table, 2006-2007.
• Featured in a three-part Oregonian Food Day cover story on "Small Batch Preserving", including eight original recipes.
• Featured in Tastemakers column, Oregonian, 2006.
• Appeared in Portland Tribune article on laminated pastries at Grand Central Baking, 2002.
• Appeared in Oregonian article on classic French pastry at Grand Central Baking, 2002.
• Appeared in Oregonian article on galettes, 2003.
• Studied at National Baking Center, Minneapolis.
• Lead cook at White Mountain Research Station.
• Apprenticed with Rob Nichols, chef/baker Panzenalla, Chapel Hill, NC.
• Baker/Manager Weaver Street Bakery
• Commisary Manager, Grand Central Baking
• Consultant/Recipe Developer, Schat's Dutch Bakkery