Paris Baguette, the neighborhood bakery café where communities come together over their expertly crafted baked and brewed goods, announced today the hiring of a new Executive Chef, Andre Fuehr. Chef Fuehr brings over 30 years of diverse culinary experience to his new post with skills ranging from fine dining to scratch cooking and custom food manufacturing. In his role at Paris Baguette, Chef Fuehr will lead a team of expert bakers and cakers, support growth goals of the bakery café and lean into customer insights to plan for the future.
“Chef Fuehr’s passion and knowledge of both the culinary and hospitality world will be invaluable to our product development and cafés,” says Darren Tipton, CEO of Paris Baguette. “His customer-centric approach and community-spirited leadership style will play a pivotal role in our commitment to producing high-quality baked and brewed goods as we bring Paris Baguette to neighborhoods across the country.”
Chef Fuehr joined the team in early 2022 and has traveled across the country immersing himself into the brand.
Growth through Quality and Authenticity
Chef Fuehr was born in the kitchen, accrediting his culinary start to his father who was trained in European cuisine. For nearly three decades, Chef Fuehr would expand his knowledge of food, research and development, manufacturing and consumer insights through time spent in kitchens small and large.
After landing his first position in a professional kitchen at 15 years old, Fuehr went on to become sous chef under Raimond Hofmeister at fine dining establishment Century Plaza Hotel in Vancouver. Following his time in restaurants, Chef Fuehr’s career led him to commercial kitchens where he discovered he was adept at taking a product and scaling it, often producing 3 to 5 million units of something without disrupting quality. In his role as executive chef at Unos, a pizzeria and grill known for its Chicago-style deep-dish pizzas, Chef Fuehr was tasked with the challenge to implement what past pizzaiolos had yet to fully develop at Unos: a thin crust pizza that could stack up against its beloved thick-crusted counterpart. Chef Fuehr, a believer in utilizing what’s on hand rather than reinventing the wheel, produced a thin crust that utilized the ovens and equipment that were specialized only for cooking deep-dish pies and catapulted sales of the new style.
Most recently, Chef Fuehr found himself on the front line of feeding children in need in Massachusetts during the pandemic as Director of Operations at Sodexo. Utilizing his custom manufacturing skills, he scaled the company’s 12,000 weekly meal production facility to output 120,000 meals a week, totaling nearly 7 million meals in 2020.
“I spent the early part of my career as a typical young chef, working in kitchens around the clock,” Fuehr reflects. “But I found my passion for food when I started working in test kitchens and learned to scale production. This is where all the pieces come together at Paris Baguette: bringing expert craftsmanship in baked and brewed goods to scale for our customers today and tomorrow. I’m excited to be part of the growth of the bakery cafés and help navigate the business changes that will come our way through expansion.”
Fuehr plans to achieve growth with one goal in mind: “stay true to our foundation.” Paris Baguette is known for delivering joy through decadent desserts, fresh-baked breads and other culinary offerings, crafted by their in-store expert bakers, cakers and baristas. Chef Fuehr will lead the future of product development by collaborating with cross-functional teams and bringing customers into the process. He will explore new spaces with the research and development team that will resonate with current and prospective guests while maintaining the level of quality and authenticity of the neighborhood bakery café. Customers will see Chef Fuehr’s plan come to life by experiencing the continued commitment to quality they’ve come to expect from their Paris Baguette bakery café.
