Apollonia Poilâne is one of the best bread bakers in the world. She runs a well-known bakery in Paris and shares her baking skills with people around the world in recipe books and online baking classes.
We are excited to announce that this year Apollonia Poilâne will be a keynote speaker at RootsTech 2022. She is excited to share about how bread links people and creates bonds when you share it. You can learn more about Apollonia’s story of connection and baking from her inspiring keynote address at RootsTech.
Who Is Apollonia Poilâne?
Apollonia Poilâne is an award-winning baker and entrepreneur. People know her as the CEO of a Parisian bakery called Poilâne Bakery. But let’s get to know her a little bit better!
Apollonia Poilâne’s Story
As a daughter and granddaughter of bakers, Apollonia grew up surrounded by the smell of freshly baked bread. When she was a baby, she slept in a cradle made by her mother out of a bread basket while her parents worked in the bakery. As a child, she spent much of her time playing in her father's bakery. So baking and bread have been an essential part of her life from a young age.
But things changed drastically for Apollonia Poilâne when her parents died in a helicopter accident. Demonstrating the unique character and bravery that defines her, and despite being only 18 years old, Apollonia took charge of the family business—her family's bakery since 1932—while completing her studies at Harvard University. She managed to turn something devastating into an overwhelming success. That is one of the things that makes Apollonia Poilâne such a unique person.
Poilâne Bakery
Today, Apollonia Poilâne runs one of the most admired bakeries in the world and has opened several other shops. But how did she get to where she is today? She applied her family’s ethos and wisdom as described by her father in the words "retro-innovation," using and applying the best of past, time-proven techniques blended with contemporary techniques to shape the future. More specifically, applied to baking, that translates into bakers using their 5 senses to adjust their gestures daily to ensure consistency in quality in recognition that bakers’ hands are their most sophisticated tools.
Apollonia Poilâne's style of making bread has inspired many people. Author Ina Garten remembers very vividly what she felt the first time she entered Poilâne Bakery. She said, “I will never forget the first time I stepped into Poilâne Bakery. It was 1971, and my heart skipped a beat. You open the door off Rue du Cherche-Midi, and you’re home—it’s a home where fresh bread and apple tarts are just coming out of the oven.”
Apollonia Poilâne’s Book
Eager to share her baking knowledge with the world, Apollonia has not stopped with the success of her family’s bakery. In addition to running a very successful bakery, she has also written and contributed to over a dozen recipe books. Her most recent book is Poilâne: The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery, a beautiful book with bread recipes and other delicious recipes. She has become such an inspiration to bakeries worldwide that she has been interviewed by many prestigious publications, such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, BBC News, Le Monde, and many others.
View Apollonia Poilâne's Keynote Address
Apollonia Poilâne's story is one of tragedy, resilience, vision, and triumph. To learn more about Apollonia's amazing story firsthand, watch Apollonia's keynote address from RootsTech. (Note: The video below is the first general session from the RootsTech conference and contains other inspiring videos from the session. To watch Apollonia's keynote address, start the video at 43:12.)
RootsTech is the world's largest family history conference and is being held online this year for free. You can view all of the amazing content RootsTech has to offer on RootsTech.org.
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