Meet our Team

Our Founder: Leslie Mackie

For Leslie, the dream of Macrina started fifteen years before the doors opened on August 27, 1993. At the California Culinary Academy, and as she traveled the world, especially France and Italy, her dream of an artisan bakery propelled her forward. Later, as she trained under acclaimed chefs Lydia Shire and Susan Regis in Biba in Boston and then at Grand Central Bakery in Seattle, Leslie honed her skills. The dream began to take shape.

“To me, making bread is being an artist,” says Leslie. “In France, bakers are revered because bread is such a central part of the family and community. The long, slow fermentation process that the European master bakers utilized intrigued me, and I spent years experimenting, mixing science and intuition.”

The original Belltown bakery was small, holding an antique baker's cooling rack packed with a dozen varieties of fresh-baked bread and a pastry case with scones, lemon tarts, walnut biscotti, fresh fruit coffee cake, and panini sandwiches. Six employees comprised the whole of Macrina.

Now, we have five cafés, many more employees, and you can find our breads and pastries at restaurants and supermarkets throughout the region. The journey has been dizzying at times, like when Julia Child featured Leslie on her show Baking with Julia or when The James Beard Foundation nominated Leslie for an outstanding contributor award. Leslie is also a member of the Bread Bakers Guild of America and the Seattle Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.

“My dream of Macrina has reached heights I’d never imagined,” says Leslie. “But one thing has never changed: Bread is the foundation of every meal I serve, and gathering to share a meal, to break bread with family and friends, and to enjoy the simple pleasure of good food and community is the richest part of my life. It is why I do what I do.”

Our PRESIDENT: Scott France

Scott France grew up all over the world, spending his early years in the Philippines, North Carolina and Indonesia before settling with his family in California for high school. Upon finishing college at Claremont McKenna and paying off his school loans, Scott took a leave of absence from the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand to drive through Central and South America. On the trip, Scott met his wife Renee, who is from Vancouver, BC. To be closer to her, Scott moved to Seattle in 1998.

In 2007, Scott toured Macrina’s wholesale bread kitchen with Macrina’s founder, Leslie Mackie. The experience altered the course of his career. “Phuong Bui, our head baker then and now, was working with a team busy hand-forming baguettes and baking them,” Scott says. “The smells were incredible. Leslie grabbed a baguette off the loader and broke it open. We had the warm bread with butter and right then and there I knew I wanted to be a part of Macrina. Not only was the bread delicious, but Phuong, Leslie and the rest of our production staff are masters of their craft and some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.”

As president and part-owner of Macrina, Scott is passionate about building a company that supplies the best fresh artisan breads and pastries to thousands of customers in the Puget Sound region. Leading a bakery recognized as one of the finest in the country that has grown to over 250 employees is a challenge Scott relishes. “Our growth over these last years has simply been to provide opportunities for the wonderful people who work at Macrina.”

Macrina celebrated its 25th anniversary by opening its fifth Seattle area café, and Scott works hard to ensure Macrina will flourish for another 25 years. “Early on, I worked on developing our mission and core values with the rest of the leadership team. This was a way of documenting the shared culture we witnessed every day: integrity, diversity, hard work, remaining positive and continuous improvement. These values continue a legacy started by and embodied by Leslie.”

Macrina’s mission is to enrich our communities through the joy of artisan baking. This includes our employee community, customer community and the many other communities touched by our bakery. Through Scott’s advocacy, Macrina has expanded its commitment to supporting a range of non-profit organizations that do outstanding work in our area. These include Helping Link, an organization that helps support our local Vietnamese community; Community Passageways, a felony diversion program for young men of color; St. James Cathedral Kitchen, an organization that provides daily hot meals to downtown homeless residents, the Experimental Education Unit, an inclusionary preschool and kindergarten at UW, FEEST, a student-led organization in South King County that works to improve health in our local schools. Supporting local communities is a passion shared by both Scott and Macrina.

Macrina’s MadRy Organic Sourdough Bagels grew out of another of Scott’s obsessions. “I love bagels, and so do my kids. I thought Macrina could do a really great bagel, and I started making them with Madeline and Ryan. After several years of tinkering with the recipe, refining it, going to a bagel class, and testing so, so many samples, I finally had something to take to Phuong and the production team who perfected the process. I loved being on the floor working side by side with the bakers to develop a bagel I’m proud to name after my kids.”

Scott spends most of his free time with Renee and their children, Maddy and Ryan. They love hiking, biking, playing soccer, skiing, swimming, reading, playing with their dog Henry, watching movies, traveling, working on old Toyotas and eating great bread!

OUR LEADERS

To make great baked goods by hand every day, we need first-rate ingredients, time, and highly-skilled artisan bakers. Delivering our freshly-baked products throughout the Greater Seattle area each morning requires a high level of organization. Providing excellent customer service requires a knowledgeable and empathetic customer service team. This all starts with our leaders, who are vital to our success. Click on the photos to learn more about our team of leaders.