In 2004 CIA-trained Pastry Chef Rachel Marie Klemek started the Blackmarket Bakery with a simple approach - be adventurous with flavor and uncompromising
with quality.
The bakery has
been more of a "secret lab" than your traditional bakery. As journalist Dhawani Parekh writes "if
Batman baked, he'd work in a kitchen like this". We keep busy turning out exotic fare like white peach
marshmallows, toasted coconut meringues, pistachio rosewater caramel tarts and the Mumbai Mambo bar, a passion
fruit curry coconut bar cookie that has been described both as "the most amazing pastry I've ever had" and,
as one Yelper put it, "disgusting".
But
as any small business owner knows, when starting out you've got to listen to your customer. So, during the 00's,
Blackmarket Bakery survived on farmers markets and rode the crazy cake trend that became a media microculture itself. Pirate ship? Yoda? (don't tell George Lucas) Giant
octopus? Vampires teaching psychology to zombies? Yup,... done it all.
The
good thing about owning a small business is that you can stay nimble and stay mobile. And if the winds
change, you can turn a little faster than the big boys. In 2008, Rachel Marie began to reinvent the bakery with
a renewed focus on flavor, ingredients and craftsmanship. Marché Noir was always the bakery's more refined alias,
but over the years it has morphed into more than an idea, as we have launched our dedicated Marché Noir Foods
line.
