SERENDIPITY

“How this whole thing came about is pretty serendipitous,” says Jennifer Duke, owner and head pastry chef of French-inspired Après Pastry & Bakery. “It’s really like this was all meant to be.” This might seem like a bold statement coming from

Duke, but when you hear her tell the story of all the things that fell into place for her to open its doors, you’re going to believe her. Duke and her husband, Jeff, were high school sweethearts and had talked for years about one day opening their own business. Would it be a gym? A coffee shop? Maybe something with cars? The couple wasn’t sure. But they knew that when the timing was right, the answer would be clear.

In 2018, the couple took a life-changing trip to Japan. “This was really special for me because I’m a quarter Japanese,” she says. “One day, we went into this pastry shop that was literally the size of a closet, but they had the most beautiful pastries. The feeling I got when we went in there was that this is something I could do. I could make pastries. This was such an aha moment for me. That sounds cheesy, but it really was.”

When Duke returned from Japan, she started googling pastry programs in Chicago. “I decided that the shortest program was going to be the best program for me. I found this school called The French Pastry School in Chicago and it had a program that was just a few months long. As my luck would have it, this is one of the best pastry schools in the country.”

With her husband’s blessing, after 10 years in the corporate world, Duke enrolled at the Pastry School. “It was a very intense full-time program, but I loved it. I was like ‘this is it.’ When I finished the program, I interned at the school. The internship really helped me solidify that I was on the right path.”

Duke left the Pastry School knowing she wanted to own her own bakery. She just needed to figure out what the best way was for her to get the experience to do this. When she asked the chefs from school, they told her she needed to go to France.

“Of course that’s what they told me to do,” she says with a laugh. “But they were certain it would help me refine my technique, better understand what it’s like to work in a large kitchen, and more. The chefs from school kindly introduced me to their colleagues in France. So, I booked my ticket for Paris.”

That was January 2020. Duke was able to get a few months in before the pandemic forced her to return home. When the world began to open up, Duke found herself gaining baking experience wherever she could. She worked at Boka in Chicago, then at Hewn with a new baby in tow, and finally at Ambrosia Euro-American Patisserie in Barrington—a beloved community establishment for more than 30 years.

“One day, I went to Lake Zurich Florist to buy some edible flowers for some pastries I was making for a girls’ weekend,” Duke says. “While I was there, I met the woman who owned the building. She knew that I made pastries and asked me what I was doing. She then said that she and her husband were looking for someone to open a bakery in the space next door to the florist. When I went home and told my husband that I thought the universe was telling us it was time to open our bakery, he couldn’t believe it. But then when he thought about how every step in me pursuing this dream of being a pastry chef had worked out just this way, he was immediately on board.”

Within just a few months of this fateful conversation, Après Pastry & Bakery opened its doors, an inviting, light-filled café. “I love this space so much,” Duke says. “It’s calm and lovely. Siren Betty Design helped bring our vision to life. I didn’t want our bakery to be overly French. Siren Betty got it just right and hit it out of the park. This is such a unique space.”

Developing the menu was a little trickier. “I knew that I wanted to do some breakfast things like croissants and scones. But I also wanted to highlight some French desserts people aren’t as familiar with, like dacquoise cakes that are nut and meringue-based. We had someone in the store last week who was telling her friend how she had to have one! It’s so much fun to see people enjoying what we’re sharing.”

Duke is also planning to introduce more Japanese items, since her trip to Japan was so instrumental in her opening the bakery. “Right now, we offer a yuzu cream tart,” she says. “I would like to do some matcha things, some black sesame things, some red bean things. I also want to do a shokupan, which is a milk bread loaf that is great for toasts and sandwiches. But again, we need to gradually introduce these things.”

Après Pastry & Bakery is proud to be partnering with Heady Cup Coffee Roasters from McHenry. She is thrilled with their product and the training they provided to Duke’s staff on making espresso drinks.

Duke still has a hard time believing that her dream of owning her own bakery has come true. She hopes that in the near future, she’ll be making wedding cakes and catering sweet tables. She would also like to rent out her retail space for parties and showers in their off hours.

When asked where the name for the bakery came from, Duke recalls it as another one of those aha moments.

“I knew I wanted a French word. I was driving home from work one day and the word ‘après’ came to mind. It has so many meanings. For me personally, I’m opening this bakery ‘after’ I had a whole other career. And then from a more customer-based focus: after you wake up in the morning, come and get a pastry. Or after a meal, come for something sweet.”

To learn more about Après Pastry & Bakery, visit aprespastry.com.