Alaskan Gourmet Batter cooks up year-round operation with bakery </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 10:09 PM on Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Alaskan Gourmet Batter cooks up year-round operation with bakery

By McKibben Jackinsky
Staff Writer

At 3 a.m., while the rest of the Kenai Peninsula is sound asleep, Jack Holmquist and Renee Orians are hard at work in Alaskan Gourmet Batter's Anchor Point kitchen. Around them swirls the thick smell of baking bread, the sweet aroma of freshly made doughnuts, the scent of hot-from-the-oven scones. When Anchor Point and Homer residents open their eyes a few hours later, trays of fresh baked goods are ready to welcome them into a new day, thanks to the early morning labors of Holmquist and Orians.

Photographer: McKibben Jackinsky, Homer News

Caley Drake, Renee Orians and Jack Holmquist turn an Alaskan Gourmet Batter cinnamon role into a birthday cake with their special icing and a festive candle.

In 2003, the business partners were selling fish and chips and beverages from their kitchen on wheels, a trailer they call "Joe to Go." With an increasing number of locals waiting at the walk-up window, a growing interest among visitors to the area and an out-of-state chef interested in their recipe, Holmquist and Orians decided they needed to expand their enterprise and begin marketing batter.
Holmquist focused his energy in the kitchen, fine-tuning ingredients for original, herb, spicy and coconut batter flavors. Orians took over sales and marketing. In 2004, their products hit the market and a fast-growing company was born. The following year, they added a dry fish brine. Today, Alaskan Gourmet Batter has products in more than 50 stores in Alaska and responds to long-distance requests from its Web site.
But that only kept the kitchen busy half a year. An idea for keeping it busy during the winter came after Holmquist and Orians were given access to bakery equipment.
"Jack looked at me one day and said, 'Let's start baking something,'" Orians said.
Since then, it's been a journey of discoveries. Which flours work best with which recipes? What does this piece of equipment do? What about that one? How do you put jelly inside a doughnut?
"Jack sat down and started figuring out different recipes," Orians said of the back-to-basics, all-natural ingredients that go into their breads, scones and doughnuts. "The dough doesn't have any preservatives. We make it fresh every day."
With the help of employee Caley Drake, the bakery produces white and wheat bread, French bread and baguettes. There are trays of scones and cinnamon rolls. There are doughnuts -- glazed, chocolate, and maple. There are jelly- and cream-filled doughnuts. There's whatever customers want, such as rolls or the recent request for cinnamon raisin bread.
The day's first delivery of bakery items is out the door by 6:30 a.m., with Orians headed for Thurmond's Automotive in Anchor Point.
"We're selling the doughnuts and they're gone right away," Janet George of Thurmond's said of how quickly the pastries disappear.
Any special orders from the Anchor Point area are left at Thurmond's for customers to pick up later in the day.
From there, Orians heads to Homer in a vehicle filled with wholesale and retail orders. Bread goes to Kachemak Wholesale.
"They have a pretty good reputation, so when people find out who's making (the bread), they buy it," said Nathan Lehmberg of Kachemak Wholesale.
Cinnamon rolls and doughnuts are delivered to Captain's Coffee Roasting Company.
"Mostly, we're selling chocolate (doughnuts)," Ty Gates, owner of Captain's Coffee, said of his customers' preference for the chocolate glaze.
Any special orders are delivered while Orians is in town, and day-old bread is taken to the Homer Community Food Pantry.
"It's great. ... They called up and we are really pleased to have them on board," said Diana Jeska of the Food Pantry.
Before returning to the kitchen, Orians delivetd bread to the Anchor Point Senior Center.
How Alaskan Gourmet Batter can keep bread prices so low -- $1.50 for a baguette; $4 for a large loaf of wheat bread -- has been a frequently asked question, according to Orians.
"If we can still make a dime and someone can have a loaf of bread on their plate, it's nice," she said. "We're not out to lose money. We just want to be fair about it."
What will happen when summer comes and the fish batter business picks up? Will the bakery remain in operation?
"As long as people are ordering, we have no intention of dropping off the face of the earth," Orians said. "If there's a demand, we'll keep this open forever. ... It's actually kind of fun."
Besides, Holmquist and Orians have other ideas up their sleeves. Some they can't talk about. Some -- like cooking classes -- are in the making.
"You have to keep doing this, reinventing yourself," Orians said of making a small business successful.
To know more about Alaskan Gourmet Batter, visit the Web at www.alaskangourmetbatter.com. To order bread, call 235-2077.
McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.