Borough Bakehouse: How a Le Cordon Bleu pastry chef runs her home bakery
đź“Ť Lake Zurich, IL
đź”— hotplate.com/boroughbakehouse
Before Vanessa Woods started Borough Bakehouse, she spent years working in production & professional kitchens in London & Door County, Wisconsin.
In 2022, Vanessa graduated from Le Cordon Bleu London’s intensive patisserie program, an experience she says pushed her to the next level technically and opened doors to incredible kitchens and mentors. After graduating, she worked as a pastry chef and recipe developer while living in the UK with her husband.
When they moved back to Chicago in January 2025, she thought she’d continue working for other bakeries, but started to feel the itch to start something of her own.
“You kind of feel like if I don’t do it, will I ever?”
The push she needed ultimately came from the people closest to her: her mom and husband.
“They both said, you should just do this,” she says. “Stop working for other people. Just start doing what you want to do.”
One year later, Borough Bakehouse is a growing Chicago-area microbakery focused on artisan breads, laminated pastries, and locally sourced grains.
Bringing professional pastry training into a home bakery
Vanessa had been thinking about starting her own bakery for years, long before pastry school.
One of her biggest inspirations was Hewn, the well-known Chicago bakery founded by Ellen King. Before it became the celebrated brick-and-mortar bakery it is today, Hewn was an underground bread club. King sold loaves to fellow parents at her son’s preschool.
“She started out of her garage or maybe her home, way before cottage food baking was even really a thing,” Vanessa says. “That always stuck with me in the back of my head like, okay, that’s an option.”
After years in professional kitchens, Borough Bakehouse became an opportunity to finally build something that reflected her own creative vision.
“A lot of my frustration came from wanting to be as creative as possible,” she says.
That mindset shapes everything from her menu development to her sourcing philosophy.
Vanessa works closely with Janie’s Mill, an Illinois company known for its stone-ground organic flours and locally grown grains. The mill was founded after farmer Harold Wilken realized the wheat grown on his family farm was traveling hundreds of miles away instead of feeding people closer to home. Since launching in 2017, Janie’s Mill has become especially beloved among artisan bakers for producing flavorful, nutrient-rich flours using traditional stone milling methods.
Vanessa sees supporting regional flour mills as a core part of the business.
“I’m very big on trying to be a big part of the local suburban community,” she says.
That focus on high-quality ingredients shows up throughout the menu.
Some of the most-loved items include the tahini chocolate chip cookie, made with Callebaut chocolate and finished with Maldon sea salt, the pain au chocolat, and the seasonal galettes - blackberry green apple makes way for strawberry rhubarb in the summertime. The country loaf is Vanessa’s best seller. It’s naturally leavened, slow fermented, delicious in many forms and especially perfect for a grilled cheese.
Growing through farmers markets and weekly drops
Today, Borough Bakehouse is Vanessa’s full-time job.
She spends her weeks preparing for Friday pickups at the Lake Zurich Farmers Market, where customers pick up preorders between 3pm and 7pm. New Hotplate drops go live every Tuesday at 9am.
At the market, she regularly brings more than 200 baked goods at a time.
And while the baking side came naturally after years in the industry, learning how to run the business side has been a completely different challenge.
“I am probably one of the lucky ones where I had worked in pastry so long and had the skill already,” she says. “So I could focus more on the business.”
Even then, she says the operational side of running a bakery has been one of the hardest parts.
“I’m very focused on the business aspect as much as I am the pastry,” she says. “The business piece is hard.”
That first year taught her quickly that good systems matter just as much as good baking.
One of the biggest lessons came from skipping preorders at markets during her first season.
“That was a huge mistake,” she says.
Now, she uses Hotplate preorders for her farmers markets and pickups, helping her better predict demand and streamline production.
She’s also experimenting with additional pickup locations and collaborations with local businesses as Borough Bakehouse continues to grow.
Learning to build sustainable systems
For Microbakery May, we asked Vanessa to tell us about the equipment and tools she invested in when she started her home bakery.
Just as important as the equipment you invest in are the systems you rely on. Vanessa credits much of her operational mindset to bakers she admires, including Don Guerra of Barrio Bread, whose advice around systems and workflow stayed with her early on:
“Make them easy to understand.”
That philosophy has become increasingly important as Borough Bakehouse grows. Vanessa uses Hotplate to manage weekly preorders, farmers market pickups, and communicates consistently with customers about new seasonal items and upcoming drops.
Right now, her focus is on creating consistency, building customer trust, and strengthening the foundation of the business.
Looking ahead
Vanessa’s long-term goal is to eventually open a brick-and-mortar bakery, something she has dreamed about since before pastry school.
For now, she’s focused on continuing to grow thoughtfully, strengthen her systems, and keep building relationships within Chicago’s food community.
“If I’m doing something, I’m doing it full force,” she says.
After spending years working in other people’s kitchens, she’s finally building one that’s fully her own.
