Later this month, food will be on the minds of many Americans, as Thanksgiving and the holiday season approach. For Shamane Simons, food is on her mind every day. And not just any ordinary provisions, she dreams in dessert. Balanced with sustainable business practices and ecological mindfulness, as well as expertly crafted confections, she successfully runs a uniquely sweet and successful business.

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Shamane is Pastry Chef/Owner of Shamane’s Bake Shoppe, a fully sustainable “green” bakery, focusing on creating specialty cakes, pastries, and exquisite wedding cakes. She has two decades of culinary experience under her belt, including local and international experience, and has worked as both a Pastry Chef and Chef du Cuisine. Her shoppe is auspiciously located in a region that has enthusiastically supported and celebrated sustainable living, environmentalism and a local sense of community. And, of course, what community wouldn’t support delectable and elegantly crafted pastries?

But a culinary career wasn’t always a dream of hers. A third-generation Coloradan, Shamane has always kept very active and had other aspirations easier on the waistline. “I loved cooking as a child,” she says, “but I didn’t always want to bake. I wanted to go into sports medicine, but the year I was going to school for that, I got a brochure in the mail for culinary school…” And that was that.

Shamane started work that summer in a Boulder restaurant in the pastry department, and following that, moving to Vermont to work at the Sugarbush Resort, further developing and expanding her gastronomic scope. “I delved into a little bit of everything,” she explains. “including cooking on the line, and work as a prep chef. I loved both aspects, both cooking and baking.” The chefs she worked for were giving her an education, as well. “They trained me to get into an accelerated culinary program,” she says.

After acceptance into the prestigious Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, AZ, she began training as a professional chef, but also took some pastry classes amidst her chef’s education. She graduated in 1994 with a degree in Culinary Arts, Sciences and Restaurant Management, completing her internship and more subsequent work experience at a private dining club in Arizona. There, she mostly created desserts, but crossed over into banquets and different parts of the restaurant on occasion.

Following that, she took a private chef position with a prominent hot air balloon excursion company in France, traveling around and primarily focusing on cooking. Two and a half years later, she returned to her home state of Colorado and started working as a pastry chef. “But I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and it was always my aspiration to be self employed,” she recalls. “It was a goal. I always try to keep obtaining goals.”

Twenty years after her graduation from culinary school, Shamane realized that goal and opened Shamane’s Bake Shoppe in April 2004. From the get-go, she knew she wanted her business to follow sustainable guidelines and to be ecologically conscientious. “I’ve always been like that,” she says. “I grew up here, and people have a different frame of mind here; it’s a different community. I come from a family of backpackers; we’ve spent a lot of our time in the outdoors, and I learned to leave a place the way you found it. From that I’ve developed a true appreciation for the earth.” She also wanted to alter one of the inevitable evils of the restaurant industry: waste.

“It’s an incredibly wasteful business,” she winces. “I watch people throw away so much food and it just kills me. We have the ability to save all those resources. I have to do as much as I possibly can to create less waste. I feel fortunate to be in this community here, and I want to take advantage of it.”

The Denver/Boulder area has plenty of active farmer’s markets during the warmer months, and Shamane makes a deliberate effort to support the local farmers, dairy producers and coffee roasters. “I like to be in tune to what’s going on locally,” she says. “We have a good relationship with local producers and try to implement as much as we can of local product into our business, and that in turn helps to advertise the local farmers. I believe that if you support your local businesses, they will do as much as they can to support you.”

Shamane’s Bake Shoppe is supported 100% by wind energy. She also utilizes strictly compostable and recyclable containers, boxes, coffee cups and she composts everything, which leaves very little remaining for the landfills. Using local companies for much of her product reduces emissions in transport of goods, most of which are also organic. Though they use green products, they encourage customers to bring their boxes back, and receive discounts on coffee when they bring in their own mugs.

In a community already well established as a leader in sustainability and alternative solutions, Shamane is hopeful these practices will continue to spread beyond Boulder and into our national community at large, hopefully becoming the norm for more and more communities. “The more people participate, the more people pick up on that. We have to focus on it and be dedicated to it. For us, our prices reflect that, and some things are more expensive, but people are willing to pay more to support what we stand for and what we’re doing for the planet. It’s all about educating people and continuing to do what is right.”

Shamane's cakes and pastries are all custom-made, using the highest quality ingredients. Delivery is available locally.

For more information, contact:
www.shamanesbakeshoppe.com
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303-41-sweet (417-9338)