Six years ago, Matfer Bourgeat USA visited Pastry Chef Michelle Hernandez just as Le Dix-Sept Patisserie was opening its first storefront in San Francisco’s Mission District. The timing couldn’t have been more uncertain. It was the middle of the pandemic, restaurants and bakeries across the country were navigating constant change, and Hernandez was introducing her first brick-and-mortar after nearly a decade of building her business one pastry at a time.
Today, the story looks very different.
Le Dix-Sept has grown into one of San Francisco’s most distinctive pastry destinations. A place where French technique meets California ingredients, botanical flavors, and the traditions of Hernandez’s Mexican and Guamanian heritage. But perhaps the biggest milestone isn’t found inside the pastry case.
It’s the building itself.
“I’ve always dreamed of baking in the same space as my retail shop,” Hernandez says. “I don’t have investors. I don’t have family money. It took almost ten years to get there… literally building one brick at a time.”
That phrase perfectly captures her journey.
Nothing about Le Dix-Sept happened overnight. Before opening her first shop, Hernandez spent years refining her craft in professional kitchens, studying classical French pastry in France, and quietly building a loyal following through pop ups, wholesale accounts, and custom cakes. Every decision moved her one step closer to creating the bakery she had imagined long before customers ever walked through its doors.
When Matfer first interviewed Hernandez in 2020, the bakery was still finding its footing during one of hospitality’s most challenging periods. Since then, Le Dix-Sept has entered an entirely new chapter.
The bakery’s current home was built completely from scratch not simply renovated, but constructed from an empty shell into the dream kitchen and pastry shop Hernandez had envisioned for years. The project took far longer than expected, with construction delays stretching well beyond a year, but the finished space became an opportunity to reimagine not only the bakery itself, but the Le Dix-Sept brand.
Alongside the new kitchen came a refreshed visual identity, updated branding, new merchandise, and a space intentionally designed to make visitors feel as though they’ve stepped into another world.
“Our goal is for people to feel welcomed,” Hernandez explains. “Dreamy. Happy. Like they’ve entered this special lilac cloud of a pastry shop.”
Every design choice supports that feeling.
A dramatic pastry case immediately draws guests into the room. A 22-foot lime-washed wall creates a cloud-like backdrop, while soft pink tile, lush greenery, and speckled flooring subtly reference the nougat crafted inside the bakery. Nothing feels accidental.
Photo Credit: Michelle Hernandez
In fact, some guests have been so moved by the experience that they’ve become emotional.
“We’ve had people cry when they walk in,” she says. “They tell us it’s their dream space.”
For Hernandez, that’s exactly what pastry should be.
“It’s a little escape.”
That same intentionality carries into every dessert leaving her kitchen.
While French technique remains the foundation of her work, Hernandez says she’s become even more focused on creating pastries that reflect her own story. Botanical flavors continue to define Le Dix-Sept, but today they’re joined by ingredients that connect more deeply to her heritage like pandan, coconut, ube, masa flour, and flavors inspired by both Guam and Mexico.
Photo Credit: Patricia Chang
It’s also influenced the way she sources ingredients.
Ethically produced chocolate, locally roasted coffee, exceptional butter for laminated dough, and close relationships with trusted producers have become just as important as recipe development itself. Hernandez believes every ingredient should have a purpose—and every pastry should tell a story.
Ironically, the biggest lesson she’s learned over the past six years has little to do with baking.
“If I could make pastry all day, that would be a dream,” she laughs.
The reality of entrepreneurship is far different.
Today, she estimates nearly 85% percent of her time is spent running the business – managing operations, studying sales, leading her team, solving problems, and making countless decisions that customers never see. Only a fraction of her week is spent physically creating pastries.
Fortunately, she genuinely enjoys both sides of the work.
Her years working in corporate marketing at Gap, while saving money to study pastry in France, became an unexpected education in leadership, customer experience, and business strategy. Those lessons continue to shape Le Dix-Sept today, influencing everything from company culture to the guest experience inside the bakery.
“You have to lead by example,” Hernandez says. “You have to create positivity every day.”
It’s a philosophy that extends beyond her own success.
Former employees have returned to work alongside her years later, a compliment she values deeply, and she speaks passionately about helping team members pursue their own goals, even if that eventually leads them somewhere else.
That generosity reflects another shift in perspective.
Early in her career, seeing larger companies borrow ideas from her work felt discouraging. Today, she sees it differently.
“The real thing will last,” she says.
As trends evolve, Hernandez remains confident that authenticity, creativity, and craftsmanship can’t be replicated.
Asked what advice she’d give aspiring pastry chefs,
“Learn the scientific method.”
Document everything. Study every variable. Understand why something worked or why it didn’t. Great pastry, she believes, isn’t built on guesswork. It’s built through observation, experimentation, and repetition.
Six years after our first conversation, it’s clear that Michelle Hernandez hasn’t simply built a bakery.
She’s built a place with a point of view.
One where thoughtful design, meaningful flavors, and technical excellence come together to create something that feels increasingly rare in hospitality today: an experience that leaves guests feeling just a little more inspired than when they arrived.