Martin Torosian needed a career change.

After working for years as an accountant in Chicago, Torosian moved to the Denver metro and switched over to insurance sales. The change still wasn’t enough.

“I was experiencing a little burnout over the summer and started looking for opportunities where I could be creative,” he said.

By August, the once accountant was working as a professional baker in Denver. Three months later, he’s in love with the job and the lifestyle behind it — and so are his peers, all laminating dough and baking goods despite no past professional experience in the industry.

Tucked within the corner of a building at York Street Yards lies Elemental Bakery & Coffeehouse — part artisanal pastries and bread, part specialty coffee shop wrapped in a modern design with blooming plants and sun-filled windows.

While guests can dine on five-star-level sweet pastries or savory croissants, the ones putting hands on dough are far from five-star experienced. In fact, the entire bakery staff that helped start the business — sans the managers — weren’t bakers before jumping on board.

Some, like Torosian, were accountants. Some were firefighters. Some were lighting technicians, like Brendan Clark.

Clark worked in New Mexico on shows like “Breaking Bad” for a decade before moving to Denver. He eventually took some time off last summer.

Now, he’s also a baker.

“Baking, food in general, has always been a passion of mine,” he said. “I saw the post hiring bakers and baristas and thought, ‘you know what, let’s try it out.'”

Elemental started in 2021 as Beeler Perk, a coffee truck that traveled around the metro. Cindy Wright brewed the coffees, while Sani Obhodas crafted the baked goods.

Wright decided to start the brick-and-mortar locale around November 2024, with Obhodas running the baked good. The two brought on long-time baker Deva Randolph as the executive pastry chef. Randolph had experience baking around Denver and Martha’s Vineyard before joining in. The bakery officially opened in February.

“It was new. It was open to growth,” Randolph said of the opportunity. “I could come in and do my product, do my thing. It was a new opportunity to bring me back into the Denver scene.”

But, from there, the staff was an amalgamation of people wanting to try out the baking profession — not experienced chefs with flour already caked into their histories.

Randolph was the last to be brought on. In her interview, Obhodas told her he had hired all of the bakers, but they didn’t know anything.

“He asked me if I had ever dealt with that before training-wise,” Randolph said. “I’ve trained countless people over the years, whether it’s people who have done this before or haven’t done this before. I said, ‘that’s not a problem’.”

“When the opportunity came up, it was kind of a no-brainer,” Torosian said. “It was a little nerve-wracking at first. I knew my previous professional experience didn’t match up with the position here.”

Torosian said he’s happy it worked out, though.

“The opportunity just to be able to express myself creatively in the kitchen,” Torosian said was the best part of the job. “I take a ton of pride when you are the one who’s there in the morning and you’re responsible for making the stuff look great.”

“Every job I’ve done before, I’ve always been thinking of the next thing. With this job, since really day one, there hasn’t been so much of that. It’s been a lot of enjoying. I get to make something. A lot of enjoyment in the moment. A lot of creativity,” Clark said.

That training process wasn’t simple, though. Led by Randolph and Obhodas, the duo trained each member with a guiding hand and open ears, ultimately crafting a team that’s touting 4.9 stars on Google Reviews.

“It was a little stressful in the beginning because I’ve never had an entire team that doesn’t know anything,” Randolph said. “We had a good product, good head on our shoulders, a good team. It was a little bit of a struggle, but they all adapted quickly. I’m really proud of them.”

“You learn a little bit and you go, ‘I got this. This is easy.’ Then you learn a little more and you go, ‘No, I don’t got this,'” Clark laughed. “It’s a learning process.”

“I think I have one of those moments once a week,” Torosian said about having instances of being overwhelmed. “The crew here has been so awesome. I have learned so much from every team member. I feel like this is a huge learning kitchen. We’re constantly trying to push each other to be better.”

“They were willing to meet us where we were,” Clark said.

Randolph added that having new bakers presents its own positives like attention to detail, fresh ideas and a moldable mind.

“What makes Elemental special is that we change up things for the season. We do a lot of interesting flavors,” Clark said. “They’re receptive to ideas. If we come in and we’re like, ‘let’s do a pizza croissant,’ it would be like, let’s figure it out.”

Now the team works with precision, crafting buttery croissants and salt-sprinkled cookies and growing a fanbase throughout the city.

“If you want to try a change, it’s so hard to say jump off the cliff and give it a try, but I am so, so, so happy that I did,” Torosian concluded.

Elemental Bakery & Coffeehouse is located at 3875 Steele St. It is currently taking on preorders for Thanksgiving and holiday goods at Elementalbakeryandcoffee.com.