Peter Jacobs obtains RBA master baker status

June 1, 2010, TORONTO – Peter Jacobs – Lesaffre and Red Star Yeast Corp.’s regional sales manager for Eastern Canada – has obtained Certified Master Baker (CMB) status from the Retail Bakers of America (RBA), becoming only the fifth Canadian to achieve this level of RBA accreditation.

June 1, 2010, TORONTO – Peter
Jacobs, Lesaffre and Red Star Yeast Corp.’s regional sales manager for
Eastern Canada, has obtained Certified Master Baker (CMB) status from
the Retail Bakers of America (RBA), becoming only the fifth Canadian to
achieve this level of RBA accreditation.

To qualify for CMB status, a baker must pass a written test and a practical test; possess Certified Baker (CB) designation plus at least four additional years of full-time retail/commercial baking experience; obtain Serv-Safe or equivalent food safety certification; and demonstrate that he or she has spent 30 or more hours in professional development courses, seminars or workshops focusing on bakery management and production.

“Your accomplishment is significant,” RBA education programs manager Howard Cook wrote in a letter to Jacobs. “The CMB is a symbol of your love of baking and dedication to high professional standards.”

Prior to joining Lesaffre in 2007, Jacobs spent five years with BakeMark Canada as national director of technical sales and training. He has been a fixture in Canada’s baking industry since immigrating to Canada from Germany in 1990, serving as an instructor at George Brown College in 2000-01; owning his own bakery, Heavenly Sweets, in Newmarket, Ont., from 1992 to 1995; and also working for the likes of Puratos and Fiera Foods.

“I am proud and happy to call the baking industry my industry of choice for 34 years now,” Jacobs told Bakers Journal.

“I started to help out on Saturdays in a bakery in Germany when I was 12 years old. At 15, I started my three-year training in the same bakery. I owned my own bakery in Germany when I was 24, before immigrating to Canada as a 26-year-old, at which point I spoke only very little English, I would like to add. Some might say I still don’t; others just don’t understand me!

“I call Toronto my home, love Canada as a country and I am a proud to say I am Canadian – well, with a German twist and a funny accent when I speak French.”

Jacobs added that Lesaffre and Red Star Yeast supported him “100 per cent in acquiring this honorable certification.”

Jacobs can be reached at peter.jacobs@lsaf.com or 1-416-315-9587.