Boston Baking's Kristen Boschetto joins Troubleshooting Innovation S19

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Boston Baking’s Kristen Boschetto joins Troubleshooting Innovation S19

29 Apr 2026

Annie Hollon

Annie Hollon is a journalist, copywriter and social media strategist from the Dallas, Texas area. She found a love for magazine writing during her time at the University of Alabama where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in public relations and English. Beyond writing, you can find her expanding her library, attempting to teach herself the guitar and trying new hobbies.

KANSAS CITY, MO — Across the industry, baking boasts a plethora of businesses with multi-generational roots, the trade passing down from one set of expert hands to the next. Boston Baking is no exception, with owner and GM Kristen Boschetto, a fourth-generation baker, leading the second -generation bakery.

Throughout Season 19 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast, Boschetto and Joanie Spencer, editor-in-chief of Commercial Baking, chat about everything from Boschetto’s upbringing in a baking family to the culture of the company to investing in infrastructure.

Here’s a snippet from the first episode, premiering May 3:

Spencer: With family-owned companies and family-owned bakeries, every family has a different set of requirements for how they bring in the next generation. I’ve heard some say the next generation has to spend a year working somewhere else before they can work at that company, or they, like you have to start at the very bottom and learn every single aspect, from the most basic to the most complex.

Was there a moment where you were like, ‘Okay, this is it, I’m here and I want to stay and I want to keep going,’ or did you ever question it kind of the way your dad [Bob Boschetto] did?

Boschetto: That’s a great question. I never questioned it. I knew this is what I wanted to do because I enjoyed being here. I enjoyed going to work. I never had ‘Sunday caries.’ I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s the truth. I enjoyed every single aspect of the business, every aspect of my job, if you want to call it a job.

I felt privileged to be able to have this opportunity to work for a family business, and that family business was mine. I want to make sure that I’m able to continue this legacy. It either ends with me or it continues with me. That’s a lot of pressure, but I welcome it, I really do. This is all I ever wanted. I guess I may not have realized it, but it might be just all I’ve ever known.

Spencer: Tell me about growing up in a family of bakers. What are some of those childhood memories? How did baking fit into everyday life?

Boschetto: First of all, there were always sweets around. I mean, no matter what we did, there was always an abundance of sweets. And, depending on who prepared the sweets, there were always a lot of opinions. So, you know, whether Uncle Joe prepared it or Uncle Bob or Uncle Tony, it was their own kind of iteration, and everyone had opinions. It was always delicious, but, you know, ‘This is too sweet,’ or, you know, ‘You put too much salt here.’ It’s a stereotypical Italian family. Loud, passionate, always a lot of food around. But it was a wonderful way of growing up.

I grew up with my uncles and my aunts. My grandmother lived with us for a number of years, and that’s what I knew. You know, my house was the house that my friends would all come to. I was raised by my father, so he was a single dad raising me as well as building the business. So, I also saw him balance between, you know, raising a child and being very involved. You know, he was my coach in the different sports that I did. He was at every parent-teacher conference. He would take me to the doctor. I mean, he was very much a staple in my life. And then he was also building this business.

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Troubleshooting Innovation is available on Apple podcasts, YouTube and Spotify, as well as on the Commercial Baking website.

Previous seasons feature a wealth of insights from bakery leaders, including: