At a thrift store auction, pastry chef Hitomi Syvertsen had her eye on a vintage wooden table. "I thought it was a really nice table, perfect in fact, if I only had a café to put it in," she recalls. Her bid won her the table and soon thereafter, in February 2017, she opened Baker & Table Cafe, where her beloved table now perfectly accommodates the cash register.
Hitomi's foray into the bakery business began after she became a new mother; she found it difficult to go out and enjoy the company of her friends, so she began hosting them at home and serving desserts. "I got so many compliments, I thought maybe this could be a career," she said. And so in 2006 she enrolled in the baking and pastry arts program at Vancouver Community College and went on to work at high-end properties, among them, the Pan Pacific, Four Seasons and Terminal City Club.
"I also went into teaching and got the provincial instructor diploma," adds Hitomi. "I like to challenge myself and the next step was to open and run my business and be successful."
