In accordance with its mission established 100 years ago, the American Society of Baking (ASB) has striven to educate bakers on the most cutting-edge advances in bakery science and processing in the commercial baking industry through the technical sessions at BakingTech. The conference, which typically spans two to three days, has been described as intensive.  

“On the technical side in general, the sessions we have on technical topics are very high value for young engineers who are learning and looking for ideas for new products, ingredients and processes,” said Ramon Rivera, senior vice president, operations and supply chain, Bimbo Bakeries USA, Horsham, Pa., and 2015 ASB chair. “In two or three days, you can gather two, three, four or even five ideas you can implement that add value to your companies. That’s why I send people to ASB. I send a mix of experienced professionals who can learn and have meetings with the vendors and colleagues, and some new engineers who are going to learn more basic things.”

At the beginning of his career, Larry Marcucci, now chief executive officer of Alpha Baking Co., Chicago, said the technical conference served as a place where he could pick up a lot of information in a short amount of time. As 2001 ASB chair, he said the pressure was on to pack the program with the latest latest information for baking.

“At that time, you really only had one shot a year at this, BakingTech,” he said. “We were always trying to figure out the newest things people wanted to know about. We branched out into computers and transportation, non-traditional ingredients and processing like enzymes and vacuum cooling. Those were all cutting-edge things. I thought they did a great job at helping people stay tuned in and up-to-date on business.”

And while the highly technical information shared at BakingTech was certainly a strength, the knowledge gained through the community itself is what certainly stood out to Theresa Cogswell, a retired industry veteran and 2006 ASB chair, the first woman to hold the position. 

“As an R&D person going to BakingTech on a regular basis, it was all about application,” she said. “R&D and innovation is useless without application, and you have to talk to the engineers, the processing guys, to understand the application of your ideas. I would come back from BakingTech with new questions and smarter questions to ask my team.”

This article is an excerpt from the February 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire special report on ASB Centennial: Legacy, click here.