Big Bear Baked Goods Tries its Paw at Donuts and Bread, March 26

Beijing is about to get quite a bit sweeter. Starting Saturday March 26 at Hatchery, baker extraordinaire Jonathan Ellis – of Big Bear Baked Goods fame – is expanding his repertoire to include donuts. From there, the famously gregarious, dreadlocked dessert expert will serve up an even vaster swath of sweets like quiches and pies of the apple and French Silk variety, along with breads like whole wheat, dusted white, and sourdough.

Ellis says this new array of baked goods boast both "classic and innovative tastes that aren't readily available in Beijing."

Priced at RMB 16 each, the handmade donuts come in varieties like espresso and dark chocolate, and Straw-thorn (strawberry and hawthorn).

Ellis will initially sell these new items at Hatchery, and he hopes to eventually have them available at a variety of cafés, restaurants and hotels across Beijing. He credits Hatchery with "incubating" his business (pun intended), saying that he's "been waiting for an opportunity like this for a few years."

"They provide a foundation and a gate system by which I validate my product and develop it for a commercial level," Ellis says about the guidance that Hatchery has offered him.

Ellis first broke through as a baker at the inaugural Cookie Monster Bakeoff in 2013. He considered himself a mere hobbyist during that initial foray, recalling: “I entered the contest wanting to just show people what I could do, not thinking it would be of much consequence.” After being crowned the winner, he went on to found his own Big Bear Baked Goods business, selling cookies at Palms L.A. Kitchen, 4corners and the now defunct Corner Melt. Ellis subsequently returned to the Cookie Monster Bakeoff as a judge in 2015 and 2016. However, this new expansion and collaboration with Hatchery marks a whole new level for Big Bear, leaving Ellis poised to shake up Beijing's relatively sparse dessert scene.

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For Ellis, each of those feats are as sweet as the treats that he whips up. As he puts it: "It's like living out a dream."

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Ellis