The path to Kevin Shaw opening Coastal Mist Fine Chocolate and Desserts took many turns over the course of his career. From working in restaurants at age 13 and holding an apprenticeship in Salzburg, Austria in his 20s, Shaw found himself in the corporate world as a district general manager for a large foodservice and facilities management company and working at a pastry school along the way. Add to that overseeing 22 states for a global bakery manufacturer, plus owning his own wholesale bakery in Boise, Idaho, and you get the sense that Shaw isn’t afraid of change or adventure.
But a pastry chef and chocolatier are at the heart of who Shaw is. When he had a chance to work as a pastry chef at a resort, that solidified that portion of his passion. A trip to Brussels in 1992 took care of the chocolatier side.
“I was on a pastry trip to Belgium, just cruising around looking at stuff. I had made the switch to being a pastry chef at that point and I had a Belgian truffle,” explained Shaw. “I was just fascinated because I had no idea what it was or how it was made. I didn’t know hardly anything about chocolate work, except how to temper it and some basic garnishes. I wanted to know more.”
Shaw had that chance three years later when he returned to Belgium to study with Patrick Mertens, a chocolatier who became his close friend (more like family Shaw says) and mentor over the years. The three-week course took place at Callebaut, a large chocolate manufacturer, and Shaw hasn’t looked back since.
“We learned basic tempering and fillings, the basic process of how to make and seal a shell. It was super basic stuff,” said Shaw. “It basically gave me enough chocolate knowledge to be dangerous, but it put a huge hunger in me.”
Over the years, Shaw refined his skills and shared his experiences in Brussels with his wife, Tara, who is also trained in the art of Belgian chocolate making. This eventually led to the opening of Coastal Mist Bakery in Bandon, Oregon.
The evolution of Coastal Mist
The Shaws opened Coastal Mist in 2008 as a wholesale business operating out of a large kitchen on their personal property, which still serves as the main bakery. A year later, they brought on their first apprentice, family friend and now business partner, Nicole Malloy. The aim was to expand their offering to a full line of European style wholesale and retail desserts, along with specialty cakes — and of course, more chocolate. In 2009, they opened their retail store in Old Town Bandon by the Sea, which features a small finishing kitchen in the back.
“We opened in the teeniest, most ridiculous manner imaginable. I don’t even know if we could truly call it a business, but we had a door and a case, and people were flocking in to buy stuff,” said Shaw.
Since then, the bakery has thrived with Tara serving as the executive chef, Shaw as the executive pastry chef and master chocolatier, and Nicole as sous chef/COO.
So, what is the secret?
“We don’t skimp. We know we have to charge what we need to charge, but we use only the best ingredients,” said Shaw.
Those include ingredients for Coastal Mist’s chocolates, a variety of petit gâteau (individual cakes) and Jaconde-based desserts — almond sponge cake with layers of mousse, then glazed and garnished. The bakery also offers Dragée, a mixture of nuts, fruits and malt balls tumbled in layers with Belgian chocolate, and the customer favorite of their Bomme du Chocolate — a chocolate cake topped with chocolate mousse with a center of ganache and cake brownie cubes, then covered in a chocolate glaze. Coastal Mist also offers cheesecakes, because as Shaw says, “It’s America and it would be silly not to have cheesecakes.”
Coastal Mist also leans to the savory side, offering a variety of sourdough breads, baguettes, ciabatta, and specialty breads, like New York rye, along with artisan sandwiches, salads and quiche.
How to improve bakery efficiency with Hobart mixers
Shaw, Tara, Nicole and their two apprentices, Kaitlyn and Kendi, rely on two Hobart mixers to bring the Coastal Mist offerings together — both of which feature stepdown bowls. One is a 12/20 stand mixer from the 1940s, and the other is a M80 40/80-quart mixer from the 1920s.
When asked what the staff mixes most in these mixers, Shaw replied: “Is it meringue? Is it marshmallow? Is it a bomme or mousse? Is it dough? It's literally everything.Our mixers do everything.”
The planetary mixer versatility for bakeries is evident in the stepdown bowls, which Shaw likes because they are essentially each two machines in one. Stepdown bowls are smaller bowls that can be used on larger mixers to ensure thorough incorporation of ingredients. This is beneficial since smaller batches of product may not mix properly in a larger bowl, and the smaller bowl sits higher, allowing for proper bowl-to-agitator clearance.
“It’s like having separate pieces of machinery... a whole wall of equipment, but it’s two pieces each. The [mixer] attachments are different, so you need to have all the attachments,” said Shaw. “But sometimes the 20-quart is too big. Let's say you're making a great meringue. You don't want to have too little in the bottom because the wire whip is barely touching it.
You're not getting the volume that you want. But then on the other side, let's say it's bread dough. A 12-quart bowl is too small, so we move back to the 20-quart one.”
Shaw added, “The little bowl is kind of a part-time day or a day off for the larger bowl, but it's just the versatility is undeniable.”
Shaw says the same versatility holds true for the M80 mixer, which they started using for higher dough production as the business has grown.
Bakery efficiency and scalability
The Hobart stepdown bowls also increase commercial kitchen productivity in Coastal Mist’s operations.
“We have duplicate attachments that we use regularly for each of the four bowls,” explained Shaw. ‘It is absolutely more efficient because while one person can get their mise en place together, while another person is using a particular bowl. When the mixing is done, they pull their attachment, pull the bowl and the next person can start mixing with a larger or smaller bowl right away.”
While Shaw’s mixers are older, Hobart offers stepdown bowls for its current line of commercial mixers. This includes:
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A 12-quart bowl for its Legacy+ HL200 (20 quart) mixer.
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A 20-quart bowl for its HL300 (30 quart) and HL400 (40 quart) mixers
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A 30-quart bowl for the HL400 and a 40-quart bowl for its HL600 (60 quart) mixer.
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40- and 60-quart bowls for the HL800 (80 quart) and HL1400 (140 quart) mixers.
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An 80-quart bowl for the HL1400.
But no matter the age of Shaw’s mixers, he stands by his choice for his commercial bakery.
“No one is even close to Hobart. When it comes to mixers, I am such a Hobart guy. End of conversation.”
About the Author
Grace Strotman is the marketing & K-12 segment manager for Hobart – Food Preparation Products. She has been with Hobart since 2020 and is responsible for marketing communications for the full line of Hobart food preparation equipment, with an added focus on the K-12 segment. See all her blogs here.
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