I'm no stranger to Gluten Free baking, especially when it comes to the tantalizing realm of social media pictures, videos and recipes. It was a Wednesday afternoon, like any other, and my Instagram feed was full of cupcakes, pizza buns, pies and tarts, all gluten free of course. I had followed, and seen pictures from BakeHealthi in Hamilton and thought “hmmm, that looks good” like I had many other times.
Then a picture caught my attention. Not a muffin, cake or lemon scone, rather a photograph of a man holding a picture collage of himself, his father, and his grandfather, all in their military uniforms. This piqued my interest. Who is this dude, and why is he donning an apron on the Instagram account of a GF bakery?
I dug a little deeper. What I found was the exciting and interesting path that lead Keith Herechuk from the Canadian Military Forces to operating a dedicated GF bakery...with some considerable stops in the RCMP and the Toronto Fire Department!
So how do you get from being an officer at Canada's highest ranking policing organization to running your own specialty bakery?
I had to find out!
When I arrived at the BakeHealthi retail store (1119 Fennell Ave E Unit 17, Hamilton, ON),I wasn't sure what to expect. The limited research I had conducted didn't reveal too much about the man behind the delicious baked goods. No personal Instagram, no LinkedIn, not even Facebook! For all intents and purposes Keith Herechuk seemed like an enigma wrapped in a buttery gluten free crust.
I approached the store, which is in an unassuming plaza like many others.
The store is closed, the lights are off.
I knocked on the door.
Waiting, I started to wonder what I might be in for. Was he going to be a hard ass? Would he peer into my eyes with his elite RCMP face-reading skills and see all of the wrong I've done in my life? I started to recall anything I might have done wrong...the door opened.
Keith smiled sincerely, firmly shook my hand. “Great to meet you, I'm Keith, c'mon in!”
The front case adorned cheesecakes, lemon squares and many other goodies, all looked amazing! We sat in the kitchen for what turned out to be an engaging and enlightening conversation.
Born in Hamilton, with a passion to go above and beyond in life, Keith decided to follow in his fathers footsteps and join the Canadian Armed Forces. By the end of his four years in the military, he found himself bored and longed for a more exciting life.
A fan of “Worlds Wildest Police Videos” he was drawn to the excitement of helping others through the world of fighting crime.
Ever the adventurous soul Keith applied to the hardest branch of policing service to get into, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This would allow him to not just fight crime but be engaged with the countries most notorious and large-scale criminal atrocities.
After a gruelling and lengthy interview process, Keith Herechuk was an RCMP officer! “I kicked in doors to make arrests, completed wire taps, all of it” he recollects.
I asked him about some of the things he inevitably witnessed during his time as an officer. “Can we turn the recorder off” he asked politely. He then proceeded to tell me some hair raising details not just about the criminal element, but bureaucracy withing the organization itself. While it might be tempting to divulge some of the gritty details, Keith is not a guy whose trust I want to betray, because, y'know... he has a “very particular set of skills...”
Working for nearly a decade to get into a specialized unit that requires an elite level lock picking knowledge (one of his “particular skills”), and beating out all others nationally to become one of only 24 people in the country with this level of mastery, Keith was overlooked for the unit.
It was clear to me that the RCMP was no longer a good work place...since I still wanted excitement but not the paperwork, firefighting has my name written all over it!”
Like everything else he seems to do, Keith put every bit of himself into his new career. He spent the next four years fighting fires in homes and businesses always helping others. It was then he started to realize there was a fire building inside himself. Years of seeing the intense and gritty underbelly of major crimes, battling blazes, risking his life, and dealing with the bureaucracy that inevitably comes with government organizations, Keith's mental health began to decline.
The diagnosis is no surprise. For someone who has seen so much, had their life put in very real danger repeatedly, PTSD is almost unavoidable! He now realized its time to take a step back and help people in a different way!
Keith's aunt was the owner of a gluten free bakery in Port Dover. Although he had no experience baking, what he did have experience in was working tirelessly to achieve his goals! He worked with his aunt to learn some of the ins and outs of the craft.
Paying attention to the gluten free marketplace in his hometown, he realized that all of the Gluten Free baking at that time was vegan. “There has to be a market of people who want real (gluten free) baking with real butter, and real cream cheese.” And he was right! Today people line up for his cheese bread, pizza buns, cheesecake and so much more!
Keith looks at his watch: “the store opens soon.” He invites me to stay and continue our engaging chat while he does some prep.
“It took me months to perfect my pie crust recipe” he tells me as he rolls out the dough, sharing a FEW of his secrets with me “but what I've come up with rivals any crust on the market, gluten free or otherwise.” He leaves me briefly to answer a customers' question in the storefront, I make a few notes and look out from the kitchen to see him leaned over the counter, watching a video on his cellphone with a lady who seemed to be thrilled to be sharing a moment with him.
As the store begins to get busy, I figure this is a good time to wrap up our interview. Of course I can't leave without taking some goodies to sample: cheese bread, lemon bars, raspberry-coconut bars, and “Twix” bars.
I could barely resist digging into the box on the drive. My anticipation grew every minute of the one hour journey. When I finally arrived home, I'm not sure I even put the car in park, flew into the house, and tore open the white cardboard bakery box. With no shame in my gluttony I took an adult sized bite out of each one of the decadent goodies. All I could think as I mowed down was;
WORTH THE WAIT!!!
I went into BakeHealthi knowing there was an interesting story behind the goodies in the showcase window, but I left feeling inspired, motivated and I'm not to proud to admit, more than a little humbled.
In the wake of Keiths' monumental career, based mainly in an effort to help others, only one word comes to mind – RESILIIANCE!
Adam is the head of Culinary Arts for the CDI and excels in creating delicious and healthy meals. With his extensive knowledge of culinary techniques and nutritional expertise, he creates delectable dishes that can satisfy every dietary restriction. In his spare time he writes the Local Spotlight for BELLY magazine.
Connect with Adam through Instagram.
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