A business
that Runs.
Not the awards. Not the press. Not the followers. A daily operation that executes — quietly, profitably, consistently.
That only happens when the owner's mind and vision are in agreement. That's what I coach.
Three places I usually meet people.
Most of the food entrepreneurs I work with arrive at one of these three forks. Read them and see which one sounds like you right now.
JUST STARTINg
You're about to start — or you've been carrying the idea...
You love baking, or cooking, or this craft. Really love it. You've been carrying the idea of opening your own place for a while now — maybe years. You'd rather find out what you don't know before you sign the lease than after. Together we'd shape the concept, build a real opening plan, and get you to day one with conviction instead of guesswork.
ONE YEAR In
You opened — but the day isn't covering itself.
You are in, a year, maybe two. The doors are open. Products are going out. But the day isn't covering itself the way you thought it would. The numbers don't add up the way you thought they would. Something is off and you can't quite name what. Together we'd sit with the real P&L, find what's actually leaking, and get the business carrying its own weight
ESTABLISHED, LOOKING AHEAD
You've been at it for years — now you're at the next fork.
The business works. You've been at it long enough to know what you're doing. Now you're staring at the next move — second location, wholesale, a new product line, a partnership, an exit — and you want to think it through with someone who's been past this fork before. Together we'd pressure-test the move, model the downside, and decide what's worth betting on.
A few things I've learned about running a food business.
A business that works isn't built in the noise. It's built in the daily operation — the one nobody is watching, the one that has to function on a slow Tuesday in February as well as it does on a Saturday in December.
01
Awards, press, social media, viral moments — they're outputs, not inputs. They sometimes follow the work. They never replace it.
02
The P&L is the most honest mirror you'll ever look into. Most owners avoid looking at it because of what it shows them about themselves.
03
The hardest decisions in a food business are almost never the ones the owner doesn't know how to make. They're the ones the owner is avoiding.
04
An owner who isn't clear in their head can't run a business that's clear in its operation. The two are the same system.
05
Coaching isn't motivation. It isn't theory. It isn't a framework I drop on you. It's sitting with you long enough — and asking the right questions hard enough — that you stop hiding from what you already know.
06
Plan the exit while you plan the entry. The excitement of building obstructs judgment. The discipline of an operator is to know — before the noise starts — what "not working" looks like, and to be willing to see it when it arrives.
07
Four ways we might work together.
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Everything starts with a free 15-30 minute introductory call. We talk, I get the project, you get a straight answer on whether I can help. From there we shape the rhythm that fits the season you're in.
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The Entry Point
A Single Session
One focused 30-minute session. $150. Bring one specific question, problem, or decision. Pre-call note from you on what you want to walk away with. We use the 30 minutes well — no warm-up. Followed by a written 3-bullet summary of what we agreed. -
WHERE MOST START
Weekly Accountability
A consistent weekly rhythm — $600/month. Four 30-minute sessions per month, same day and time each week. Each session structured: 10 min on what happened since last call, 15 min on the one thing that matters most, 5 min on commitments. WhatsApp access between calls. -
A 90-DAY ARC
A Season
Three months — from $4,500. Three monthly 90-minute deep sessions plus weekly check-ins. Monthly P&L review delivered as written analysis. Month 1 — Truth. Month 2 — Edges. Month 3 — The Bet. Comes out the other end with a real 12-month plan and the conviction to lead it. -
THE LONG GAME
A Partnership
Ongoing, year-by-year — from $5,000/month. For owners who want a thinking partner across the whole arc of their business. Two monthly deep sessions. Monthly P&L analysis. Direct WhatsApp. Quarterly half-day strategic session. Application required.
The tools I wish I'd had when I opened my bakery.
Spreadsheets, templates, and playbooks built from 25 years of running food businesses. The same tools I use with my coaching clients — packaged so any owner can use them, whether we ever talk or not.
The Food Business P&L Template
COMING Q4 2026
A real P&L template for cafes, restaurants, and bakeries — with built-in industry benchmarks, food cost calculations, prime cost ratios, and breakeven math. The P&L I wish every owner came to me with already filled out. $67 · Google Sheets.
Recipe Costing & Menu Engineering
COMING Q4 2026
Input ingredients and yields, get cost-per-unit, target margin, and a suggested menu price. Includes star/dog/cash-cow analysis to show you which menu items actually pay your rent. $97 · Google Sheets.
The Bakery Opening Playbook
COMING Q4 2026
A 60-page operator's manual for opening a bakery or artisan food business — equipment lists, hiring sequence, opening-week SOPs, the first-90-days plan. The playbook I wish someone had handed me before I opened Breadologie. $197 · PDF.
ABOUT CHARLES
Baker. Operator. Coach.
In that order — and the order matters.
I came up the old way. French Brevet Professionnel training in Concarneau, then INBP in Rouen. 12am starts, hand-shaped baguettes, master bakers who'd been doing it for forty years and didn't tolerate corners.
I spent fifteen years inside US hospitality. Assistant Executive Pastry Chef at the Venetian Palazzo in Las Vegas. Executive Pastry Chef at Valley View Casino in San Diego. Head Baker at Bread LA, running 20,000 units a day on a $3.2M production line. I taught the next generation as Chef Instructor at The Art Institute in Los Angeles.
In 2016 I co-founded Breadologie Bakery in Los Angeles. I built it from a single oven into an award-winning retail and wholesale operation, and ran it for ten years. That's the part that made me a coach. Ten years of running my own shop taught me what no culinary school teaches: an owner's head is what really runs the business. The recipes can be perfect. The location can be right. The team can be skilled. And the business will still struggle if the owner is hiding from the numbers, drifting from the vision, or avoiding the decisions only they can make.
I've sat in your chair. The 3am wake-ups. The slow Tuesdays that look like a slow life. The decisions that get harder the longer you wait. The conviction that wobbles and re-arrives. The P&L that suddenly makes a different kind of sense once you stop pretending. That's what I coach now. Not recipes. Not technique. The harder work: knowing your numbers, knowing your why, and leading from conviction instead of fear.
"THE MENU"
Pull up a chair.
Tell me a little about your business and what you're carrying right now. I'll be in touch within 48 hours.