About

a Portuguese family sits down for dinner

The bread is already on the table.

Nelson and Hugo Bettencourt were born on São Jorge, Açores and grew up in the Little Portugal neighborhood of San José, California. That’s how they grew up; eating bread with every meal.

Nelson has long-held a passion for building, which led him to his career in construction. In this latest venture, Nelson combines his expertise in building with his life-long appreciation for baked goods.

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.

In 2023, over Christmas dinner at Hugo’s apartment, Nelson, holding up a piece of Hugo’s sourdough slab, asked, “would you start selling this?” Clare nudges Hugo…

Enter: Bettencourt Bread Parlour

With Nelson’s operations experience and Hugo’s baking expertise, the brothers are combining their talents and passions, and sharing it with their hometown.

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