Over eighteen years ago, Floriole Owner Sandra Holl and her husband Mathieu began baking and selling rustic French pastries at Chicago's famed Green City Market. What started as a few pastries sold at farmer’s markets under a 10-by-10 tent quickly grew into one of the city's most beloved bakeries.   

Sandra recently spoke with the Guild about finding her way into the baking world and trying to create a sustainable business for her and her team today.   

Raised in Rockford, Sandra said she didn't do much cooking or baking growing up. That changed when she went away to college, which included a stint studying abroad in Paris while working towards a BA in French and Literature. 

"I got really interested in food," she said. "There were all these great ingredients all around, so I started cooking."  

After college, she landed a marketing job in San Francisco. On the side, Sandra enjoyed volunteering part-time prepping meals in a non-profit kitchen. When she was unexpectedly laid off from her day job, she decided to enroll in culinary school at the California Culinary Academy. When she got an externship at San Francisco's infamous Tartine Bakery, working alongside pastry chef and owner Elisabeth Prueitt, she knew baking was what she wanted to do.  

"The farmers were coming in with peaches and flowers," she said.  "I've never been around anything like that in my life. I loved, loved, loved it."  

After two years working as a baker at Tartine, Sandra and her husband moved to Chicago. She was surprised that fewer local bakeries used regionally sourced ingredients, as she'd experienced in San Francisco. So, they decided to start their own and sell at Chicago's Green City Market.    

"We started with just a tent, a table, and a couple of recipes," she said. "We grew it from there." 

She was pregnant with her daughter, now 17 years old, when Floriole did its first Green City farmers market. Initially, she baked in a rental kitchen that rented by the hour. After two years, the demand from the farmers markets was so high that Floriole got its own production space.  

 "We got into more farmers markets and kind of grew that way," she said.   

In 2010, Floriole opened its stunning brick-and-mortar store on Webster Street. But the transition from cottage bakery to brick-and-mortar wasn't without its challenges. 

"We were killing it at the markets, and I thought, we're so successful that people are all just going to walk over to the bakery," she said. "Guess what? They didn't, at least not right away."  

Sandra said she's thankful it took some time to establish the business, which gave the bakery space to grow and stabilize.   

"It takes people a long time to make that connection," she said. "And thank god because we needed that time to figure everything out."  

The Lincoln Park bakery prides itself on making French-inspired pastries rooted in Midwest ingredients. 

Asked who her mentors were, she immediately named Tartine's Elisabeth Prueitt.  

"She's so pragmatic, straightforward, and smart with baking and pastry," she said.   

She also named cookbook author and baker Dorie Greenspan, because "she makes you feel like you can do anything."  

Asked why she joined the Guild, Sandra said she "loved the connection with other bakers it provides. It’s a great resource for somebody who needs information on how to do almost anything with bread and pastry." 

Learn more about Floriole and Sandra below.   

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