At just 39 years old, Christophe Grilo already boasts of a Michelin-star-studded resume and some 20 years’ experience in bread- and pastry-making.

Born in Champigny sur Marne in France, he enrolled in culinary school when he was 14 and at age 17, made the definitive decision to move away from fish and meats to sugar and chocolate. Having found his calling in desserts, Christophe went on to become the pastry chef at Le Belvedere, a one-Michelin-star restaurant on the island of Corsica at the tender age of 18 and later followed his “culinary godfather” Bernard Bach to open the two-Michelin-star restaurant Le Puits Saint Jacques.

His journey of cooking with culinary heavyweights also include working under renowned epicurean masters like Jacques and Laurent Pourcel as the executive pastry chef at their three-Michelin-star French restaurant Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier. For four years, he also helmed the reins as executive pastry chef at the acclaimed restaurant Spoon by distinguished French chef Alain Ducasse at the InterContinental Hong Kong hotel. Through the years, Christophe’s career has allowed him to jet set to different food-centric cities around the world and cook for Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger and singer Barbra Streisand.

Christophe became the executive pastry chef of the Hilton Singapore in 2009 and later joined the Les Amis Group to head the successful Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie. Driven by his ambition to start his own venture, the Frenchman left Canele after almost three years to launch Bakery Artisan Original, or B.A.O. bakery in short, in 2013 to focus on making breads. He employs the traditional method of letting his bread dough ferment with natural yeast, a process that gives the breads a deeper flavour and a denser texture, even though it takes longer.