Born in the 19th century (1862, to be exact), Shane came of age during the pirate revolution of 1612. He evidently has perfected the art of time travel at an incredibly young age. He sailed on the bounty into the West Indies to find pirate booty and meet interesting people. In 2008, (many, many years later), Shane left home in Peterborough to seek his fortune through small batch coffee roasts and baking. Before long, he found himself in Ottawa in his search for further spoils.
In 2010, Shane graduated from Algonquin as a Baking & Pastry Arts Certified Baker. While he was studying to achieve this greatness, he spent many hours volunteering at Auntie Loo’s Treats. In the early days, he attended Auntie Loo’s First Craft Sale, where he made a bunch of vegan pies and sold them. He used the moneys gained from this endeavour to buy a bike so he could ride to buy more apples to bake into pies, which he sold to buy another bike so he could ride to buy even more apples to bake into pies, and thus the vicious cycle began.
Somewhere amidst all the apple picking, baking and biking, Shane managed to create Ottawa’s first vegan croissant. He enjoys vegan baking as it is more interesting and requires problem solving that is not taught in school. Additionally, as he is not vegan, he feels that by baking delicious vegan creations, he is contributing in other ways. Vegan baking is a choice to make things which don’t involve hurting animals, and this is one way that he decides to make a difference!
In his spare time, Shane enjoys tending gardens, keeping chickens and fixing his bike. He enjoys Balkan brass music, extended Lord of the Rings marathons (when sleep is not an issue), and Everything Is Illuminated is his favourite movie. He can often be found perusing The Needle Drop – a favourite music blog of his.
His current goals involve rebuilding a bike, forming a doom/sludge/metal-pop combo band, watching his niece grow up, making his gardens grow, developing a vegan macaron formula, and perhaps seeking further riches abroad – ‘cuz that’s how he rolls!
Shane has moved on to work at one of our wholesalers, so we don’t see him quite as often as we used to. However, we still have him as a guest baker, as he comes in every once in a while to give us a hand!
