RavenHook Bakehouse
BY: Anna El-Eini
RavenHook’s Chris Girardot is hooked on baking. Every day, Chris Girardot and his team can be found preparing RavenHook’s beloved artisan breads and pastries for 16 farmers’ markets across the DMV. He manages a large crew and thousands of pounds of ingredients weekly, sourced from local farms and small producers. For Chris, the mission is simple: Bread should be a staple, not a luxury. And, truth be told, he just loves baking.
His path started by chance when the office where he worked closed, and Uptown Bakery downstairs needed help. The first time he pulled a loaf of Italian bread from the oven, spread with just butter, salt, and pepper, he was “transported to heaven” and instantly hooked. “This is what I always strived for, to give my customers that feeling, that exact moment.”
At Uptown he mastered breads and pastries, working alongside chefs who generously shared their knowledge. Later, as head baker at Whole Foods in Arlington and Tenleytown, Chris discovered he also loved teaching. Today, mentoring is central to his leadership at RavenHook. Many of his crew arrive with little experience, but Chris hires for eagerness. He laughs when recalling one baker who filled pans with a full pound of cake mix for “pound cake”—causing a dramatic oven explosion. “That’s okay,” Chris says. “I liked that he was so eager to get baking.”
While RavenHook moves truckloads of bread each week, the process is never rushed. Ingredients are sourced locally whenever possible, from heirloom tomatoes for focaccia to Happy Hens eggs. Chris works closely with the Common Grain Alliance to connect with regional farmers and mills. From Grapewood Farm and Small Valley Mining come redeemer wheat, spring wheat, Danko rye, and wheatberry— grains that give RavenHook’s whole wheat sourdough, sweet onion Baltic black, and New York seeded ryes their distinctive textures and flavors. Small Valley Farms delivers the small batch-milled finer flour RavenHook uses in their pastries and their flaky melt-in-your-mouth buttermilk lemon ginger and sour cherry scones. He sometimes picks up ingredients at the end of the market day when farmers are left with too much produce, happy to incorporate them into his seasonal cobblers and tea breads so that nothing goes to waste.
RavenHook’s zesty, creamy cheddar bread is a crowd favorite, and Chris thinks it’s because he only buys locally made jalapeños from DCs Gordy’s Pickle Jar.
Technique matters just as much as sourcing. Every loaf is handcrafted and slow risen, designed to arrive at market fresh each morning. Dough for RavenHook’s perfectly crunchy airy baguettes are chilled quickly to withstand DC’s notorious humidity, while challah is frozen mid-process to achieve its pillowy chew. “Some bakers think it’s cheating to use the fridge or freezer, but I don’t. I learn what each dough needs to become the best loaf possible,” Chris says. His sourdough starter is given days to develop. Unlike commercial breads that rely on preservatives, RavenHook’s loaves stay fresh through patience and care.
Chris also draws inspiration and support from a larger baking community. He’s active in the Bread Bakers Guild of America, where questions like “Why are my baguettes slack?” spark lively discussion among the country’s best bakers. He and his staff attend workshops and events—one manager recently returned from “Camp Bread” in Rhode Island brimming with new techniques and ideas.
Chris passes along his own knowledge, teaching classes on king cakes, focaccia, and more at Mess Hall, a community kitchen in Northeast DC. He still consults his prized, signed copies of Julia Childs’ Baking with Julia, and Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman, the former head baker at King Arthur, and trades notes with him, proof that even seasoned bakers are always learning.
It’s this mix of curiosity, generosity, and joy that fuels RavenHook’s output: market staples like presliced sourdough and seasonal showstoppers like chocolate cherry bread. For Chris, the goal remains the same as that first bite of Italian bread—giving customers that “slice of heaven” moment. And despite the long days and early mornings it takes to send six full trucks out the door to market each morning, it doesn’t look like he and his crew will ever get tired of creating those moments.
