About

a Portuguese family sits down for dinner

The bread is already on the table.

Hugo Bettencourt was born on São Jorge, Açores and grew up in the Little Portugal neighborhood of San José, California; and that’s how he was raised, eating bread with every meal.

Hugo studied ceramics at San José State University and began baking bread for Whole Foods Market in 2017. In 2018, Hugo received a James Beard Foundation Scholarship to take classes at the South San Francisco Baking Institute to refine his craft.

Clare started baking as a child thanks to watching Julia Child, Jacques Torres, and Martha Stewart on PBS. After graduating from the University of San Francisco, she worked in the Food Corps Division of AmeriCorps. She earned an M.Litt from Glasgow University and a PhD from UC Irvine in food history, and has taught food studies courses at UC Irvine and Santa Clara University. Clare and Hugo met while working at Camera 12 Cinemas in San Jose (2005) and married in 2016.

Enter: Bettencourt Bread Parlour

With Hugo’s baking expertise and Clare’s love of cooking and food knowledge, they combined their talents and passions, and started sharing it with their community.

Their bakery approaches California sourdough through a Portuguese lens while celebrating local ingredients.