Global bake-over

Dean Brettschneider’s new Californian-set TV series is just another step on his path to world domination, writes Angela Walker.

CONSIDERING HIS brand is ‘‘Global Baker’’, you don’t really expect Dean Brettschneider to get lost. But that’s exactly what he did this quiet Saturday morning in Beverly Hills, and it’s exactly how he came to meet TV talk show host Jay Leno.

In Los Angeles to film part of his new series, A Kiwi Baker in

California, Brettschneider is filling in time before our breakfast meeting at that most iconic of LA breakfast meeting locations, the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

His walk takes him down the long palm-tree-lined boulevards that surround the hotel and which after a while, all start to look the same.

Being Los Angeles, there are no other people out walking so Brettschneider hails a passing car to ask for directions. The driver is Leno – ‘‘I work in TV’’ – and he delivers our Global Baker – ‘‘so do I’’ – back to the hotel.

As a Beverly Hills story goes, it’s a winner. Which is fitting for Brettschneider, the former Rangiora boy who now has fingers in pies all over the globe. Living in

Denmark, with bakeries in Singapore and Asia, consultancy work in Britain and Europe, judging on the hit TV show New

Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker and licensing agreements in Tokyo, Manila, Taipei and Abu Dhabi, his is a true success story, born out of talent, sheer determination and just being a very nice guy.

Sitting here at Beverly Hills’ most iconic hotel, the day before filming starts on his latest TV series (its predecessor, A Global

Baker in France, was shown last year), he’s come a long way since his high school woodwork teacher called in his mother after Dean chose to do home economics instead.

As a teenager, he was a top rugby and soccer player and even then, came to realise the value of marketing. ‘‘I liked seeing my name in print. Being recognised is like people saying ‘well done’. And I understood how a profile could lead to more success.’’

Work experience at the Rangiora Bakery lead to him winning NZ Apprentice of the Year award in 1988 and soon after he went to Europe, working in top