Baker rises to the occasion
As a baker, David Voelker brings culinary delights to his patrons. He also brings years of experience as a chef, a sous chef, and a former business owner. The former restaurant, The Pasty Depot, was one of his creations. The Pasty Depot was named after the former occupant of the building, the former railroad ticket depot and the main food served, the pasty (pronounced as pass-tee).
The pasty is a creation that Voelker has brought from his childhood. It’s a hand-held half-moon shaped oven baked pastry crust filled with potatoes, meats, and/or a variety of vegetables. The pasty is a food that miners of Voelker’s former hometown in Michigan would enjoy as a daily staple. Every miner family had their own specialties, and he has created his own varieties that can be found in the freezer section of Pilgrims Market along with his delicious breads.
While the creation of breads and food is a delight and his daily work, Voelker’s passion is fishing on Lake Pend Oreille for rainbow trout. He arranges his work around the weather predictions of the day. His co-workers, family and friends are regular recipients of his catches. In fact the morning that we spoke, Voelker had enjoyed fish for breakfast.
Having enjoyed baking as a profession, Voelker says he was involved in some professional training but the majority of his success has been found in his love of the profession and on-the-job training. He said, “In the culinary business, you literally throw everything against the wall and if it sticks you go with that. This is a really tough business, constantly changing and demanding and I’ve found a couple of things that work. I go with them, but I also constantly work to create a product that my patrons will enjoy.”
What is your hometown? I was born in Detroit, but I call Alpha, Mich., my hometown. It’s a small mining community on the upper peninsula of Michigan that may have a population of 200 in the summer. It’s beautiful country with a gorgeous outdoors, wonderful fishing, hunting and skiing. Very much like here with its outdoor sports.
What town do you live in now? My wife and I live in Hayden, in Strawberry Fields. We just sold a second home that we had.
What job do you do? “I am the baker for Pilgrims. I create four varieties of pasties: a chicken, a vegetarian, a traditional and a deluxe pasty that are sold in their freezer section. I create the breads that they sell at their checkout counters. Also, my wife, Carol, and daughter, Kelsey, sell our wares at a booth at the farmers’ market during the summer.”
How long have you been doing this job? I have been creating pasties and breads for Pilgrims for the past three years. But I have been at the farmers’ market since 2001.
What do you like the least about this job? Nothing. Over the years I have learned to eliminate the parts of this job that are stressful. For example: During the holidays there is a special pasty that I create that is quite small compared to the usual pasties that I create. I will make these only once a year and only for wholesale.
What do you like the most about this job? I create a product that is well received and that I enjoy making. I get to work early, about 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning and leave just about the time everyone else is getting to Pilgrims. And if it’s a fishing day I’m out of there at 8 or 9 o’clock in the morning.
What makes it a fishing day? Weather. I’m pretty much addicted to fishing and I plan what I need to accomplish for the day around my fishing opportunities.
Tell us a funny/unusual or sad story that happened on the job. Before working for Pilgrims I owned a restaurant named The Pasty Depot. I had many people come into the store and I enjoyed meeting many different people and being in business.
We used to make pizza, and one of my rules in the kitchen was never turn the timer off, once it goes off. I don’t know why I remember this story, but I had an employee who would constantly not reset the timer and we ended up burning a lot of food. He would turn off the timer and go do something else and disaster would strike. So, one day he burnt a pizza by not putting the timer back on. This pizza came out as black as coal and just as hard. It was still round, but black and just for a mean joke I nailed it up on the wall over the doorway to the kitchen. So there was a large black pizza hanging on the wall. We all had a good laugh and my employee always turned the timer on after that.
What is your dream job? This is my dream job. I schedule my work around my fishing opportunities and pretty much just enjoy life.
If your life were made into a movie, whom would you want to play you? I admire Lee Marvin, especially the work he did in “Dirty Dozen.” I’m an old war film buff and I really like this movie of his. The thing I liked the best was the character he portrayed in this movie.