My name is Clarence Martin. I was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia. I first fell in love with cooking and baking at the age of ten watching my grandmother “Ruffy Duffy” Ruth Martin cooking and baking. This passion started me working for many fast food chains between the ages of fifteen through eighteen. At the age of eighteen, I became the head baker at Kroger; and at twenty I was on a journey to become an accomplished cake decorator trained by Kroger’s best. I also started at Atlanta Area Tech for Culinary Arts in Atlanta Georgia. I was offered a job at R.W. Good Times as a line cook. In three months time I became the pastry chef.

I worked there for four months and landed a job at Gourmet Concepts. I quickly moved up through the ranks from working in the freezer, to a mixer, then a cake decorator, and finally the line leader. The best thing about working in a production bakery is that I had a chance to learn recipes from the nation’s largest restaurant chains. After five years of service, I was sent with five other professionals to California to close a bakery and bring it back to Atlanta. At that time, I was enrolled in American Institute of Baking; I received an Associate’s Degree in Baking Technology.

Gourmet Concepts was bought out by Schawn’s Baking Group which included Ms. Smith and Edward Pies. I studied recipes with the top corporate chefs. With all this accomplished, I felt something was missing. I had my own ideas, flavor combinations, and a desire to design custom cakes. Thinking I wanted French cuisine under my belt, I enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts of Atlanta. I also started working at a mom and pop bakery. I designed the black and white torte that was a top seller at Café Intermezzo. I missed the fast pace of production bakeries, and for that reason I became a shift manager for the Heavenly Cheese Cakes. It was fun until they were also bought out by a larger bakery and as a result I was laid off. Finally, I began to make cakes and sale them out of my home. It has been a long journey to present Taste & C

RUFFY DUFFY

LOVE YOU G.G.