Fat Peach’s Kerrie Breuer Talks About Limb Difference and Motherhood | Eater Chicago
"Before opening the shop on Archer Avenue in Bridgeport, Breuer was an award-winning baker and cake decorator who blew the competition away in 2022 on Amazon Studios’ Dr. Seuss Baking Challenge. The couple, Breuer and her husband David Castillo, brought what Saturday Night Live calls the Big Dumb Line — turning a typically quiet, residential stretch of Archer Avenue into a destination bakery focused on beautifully laminated sweet and savory pastries. The menu emphasizes sourdough-based, fancy, flaky pastries with unexpected fillings and an ever-changing weekly lineup inspired in part by Mexican café culture; Castillo’s rare combination of savory and sweet pastry experience helps the operation pivot between dough, lamination and creative fillings. The shop replaced Bridgeport Bakery, a neighborhood staple for 50 years (which briefly reopened as Bridgeport Bakery 2.0 before closing in 2021) — those predecessors were best known for cookies and paczkis, with long lines forming on Fat Tuesdays. As new parents and first-time owners they face daily challenges but “Honestly, we’re just taking everything day by day, because I try not to think too far into the future,” Breuer says. “You know, things change pretty quickly. I will say that all of my time is accounted for. I definitely try to find balance where I can, but yeah, we’re pretty busy.” The couple discovered Breuer was pregnant in August 2024, just before the business opened, and she gave birth in April; the baby is often in the kitchen with them: “He sleeps in his carrier sometimes or I’ll just like, baby wear him. And then I just work on projects that I can do while wearing a baby in the kitchen. It’s a pretty close-knit team in a very small kitchen, so we’re all very aware of him.” Breuer, who was born without a left hand due to amniotic band syndrome and was raised as an adoptee in Minot, North Dakota, describes her upbringing: “Her mom treated her like everyone else and basically just told her that, you know, you can do whatever you want to do. It might look a little different, but you can do anything you set your mind to. And that’s kind of the mindset that she had when she was raising me, and I think that without that sort of upbringing, I don’t think I would be who I am today.” She emphasizes practice and adaptation in the kitchen: “You know, I might hold things a little bit differently. If I’m stirring something in a really large bowl, I might hug it close to my body so that I actually have some stability, or I’ll put like a rag underneath it. Other than that, I don’t use adaptive tools. I was born without a hand, so I’m totally used to working without it.” That perspective informs her mentorship for others with limb differences: “The more you put yourselves in situations where you’re learning something new, the more confident that you’re going to be trying something later,” she says. Operationally, Castillo “works on the dough at the beginning of the week,” while Breuer handles inventory, ordering and weekend finishing work: “David works on the dough at the beginning of the week, and then I kind of do like the random little things that need to be done, like taking inventory and ordering things,” Breuer says. A key hire, Cecilia Iwata, is essential both in the kitchen and front of house, and Breuer jokes about her importance: “Cecilia is probably like, honestly… Cecilia is like my left hand.” The owners aim to build a healthy workplace that nurtures staff creativity and the neighborhood, and their early success has already allowed them to add assistant bakers and a dishwasher to the team. The owner also acknowledges a lack of visible role models in kitchens for people with limb differences (noting projects like the YouTube channel Stump Kitchen), and hopes her visibility will encourage youngsters to “try everything at least once and don’t be worried if the process looks different than everyone else.”" - Patrice Yursik
