Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Emanuel Rhiner is baking at 3 a.m. so he can present pastries and other baked goods to customers bright and early at the Quito Village Bakery.

Bakery fills Quito Village with a fresh-baked aroma

By Suzanne Cristallo

At 2:40 a.m., when most people are sound asleep, Emanuel Rhiner is hurrying through his morning routine so he can start baking by 3 in his Quito Village Bakery.

For the next three hours, Rhiner and an assistant turn soft dough into flaky croissants, rich chocolate cakes and creamy, cheesy, buttery Danish pastries. By 7 a.m., his doors are open, the rich array of his morning's work artfully displayed for local business people and neighbors of Saratoga's Quito Village, who nudge their sleepy bodies into the day with strong, hot espresso tempered by Rhiner's sweets from the oven.

Rhiner, 34, started baking at age 19 in his hometown near Zurich, Switzerland. A belief that knowledge of English would be helpful and the best way to learn it was by having to use it led him to depart two years later for Cupertino, where an uncle lived.

Immediately, he put his baking skills to work in a Palo Alto bakery, where the boss's knowledge of simple German helped bridge the initial communication gap. Another job led to baking cakes for Whole Foods Market, where he eventually managed the bakery accounting department, gaining skills in purchasing and bookkeeping.

Last summer, the former Kathy's Sweet Stuff came up for sale, and Rhiner plunged into business for himself, buying and renaming the shop Quito Village Bakery. To help him get started, he asked a friend he had been introduced to by his cousin some years before to help out. After she came, Rhiner began to see Cupertino native Eanelle Wilkinson in a different light. "We just connected then," he says with a smile. They became engaged just last week.

One regret Rhiner has comes from the realization that there is little time to be creative. "I'm very busy doing paperwork, training employees, buying, baking, arranging displays and cleaning up," he says. The special recipes he plans to incorporate are slow in coming, but soon there will be fresh-baked rye bread to accompany the whole wheat, white and cinnamon raisin he now bakes daily. Variety is not lacking, however. Croissants come filled with cream cheese, chocolate, almonds, ham and cheese, turkey and cheese and even pizza sauce and cheese.

Cakes come marbled with mousse and cheese, fruited with strawberries and smeared with fudge. Danishes are filled with cream cheese, custard and three kinds of fruit; there are also sticky cinnamon rolls and bear claws.

Not much remains at the end of the day, but Rhiner freezes the leftovers for pickup twice a week by the Homeless Care Force, a group that stocks three homeless shelters in San Jose.

Rhiner says he likes living in the United States. He believes there is much more freedom here than in Europe, in private life as well as business.

"You can do more things," he explains, "even work on your own car." He says that anyone working on their own car in Europe must submit to a government inspection every three years. "Also people are a lot nicer here--more polite. They stand in line and wait their turn. Back home, everyone tries to shove to the front." He finds that particularly important on the ski slopes, where he hopes to begin spending free time again. That will have to come after those new recipes and the little naps he sneaks in to compensate for the four hours of sleep he gets each night.

Quito Village Bakery, 18846 Cox Ave., Saratoga. Open Tue.-Fri., 7 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat. 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Closed Sun.-Mon. 866-1033.

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