We checked in with the pastry chef of PJ Murphy’s Bakery, Francois Kiemde, who owns the bakery with his wife, Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde, about how they became the new owners of the St. Paul spot.

He also let us in on how the couple is balancing tradition — the space at the intersection of Randolph Avenue and Syndicate Street has been home to bakeries since 1921 — with putting on their own stamp.

What’s your first food memory? I grew up in Burkina Faso in West Africa, and my mom loved to cook. She would make me chicken broth when I was sick. So every time I didn’t want to go to school, I would play like I was sick because I knew I would get some chicken broth.

What was your first job in food? I graduated from college with a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. There weren’t any jobs around, and my sister suggested I go to New York with a person she knew who was going there. I worked at a famous French restaurant called Le Relais on Madison Avenue in New York. That was back in 1996. I was a dishwasher at first. Then the person making the desserts left to travel to the Dominican Republic, and so they moved me to the dessert section. I learned to make desserts really quickly. And whenever the plate came back empty, it made me a very a happy man.

How did you wind up in the restaurant business for good? The person I was filling in for making desserts at the French restaurant was coming back from vacation, but I had already started to like it and wanted to keep doing it. There was an opening at Tribakery in New York City and I went to work there. I moved up the ranks and became a supervisor. That’s when I met the owner and was competing in food and wine shows and servicing the bakery’s celebrity market and restaurant hot spots. The owner sent me to the French Culinary Institute in New York City where I’m a graduate. That’s where my love for bread comes from. I was trained for Italian, German and French bread and pastries. I continued on the path of managing a bakery, and hold a bachelor’s degree in business from Metro State University.

How did taking over PJ Murphy’s Bakery come about? Melissa had lived in St. Paul for 25 years. She used to live three blocks from the bakery and would get doughnuts there. One day we found out the bakery was up for sale. The dream was always to have a bakery and run it together. Melissa is a former teacher and now the business manager of the bakery and a spiritual director at Loyola Spirituality Center. We’re the third generation of families to own the bakery. The Grinelle family opened it in 1921, and then it became Weber’s Quality in the late 1940s. Three generations of Webers ran the bakery, and they expanded the place in the early 1970s. The next generation of owners, wife-and-husband team Michelle and Joel Lemanski and their business partner Paul Beauchamp, bought it in 1993. They renamed it PJ’s for Paul and Joel, and then Murphy after Joel’s mother’s side of the family. We took over Sept. 15, 2017.

Has the menu changed since taking it over? We have continued the tradition at PJ and offer retail and wholesale operations. We added some French flair with the introduction of exquisite French pastries and breads. We work closely with chefs on the local scene to provide them with customized products that are not readily available to them at existing bake shops around the metro.

What’s your favorite dish on your menu? I love making croissants. It’s quite an art, from rolling the butter in to getting a flaky croissant in the end.

If you had to eat or drink only five things for the rest of your life, what would they be? I like the brisket that comes with a potato bun from Revival Smoked Meats at Keg and Case West 7th Market in St. Paul. I love my wife’s chimichurri sauce. It’s better than what you can get at Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis. We love the whole rainbow trout at Young Joni in Minneapolis. I like the roast beef on a sourdough hoagie from Nelson Cheese & Deli on Como Avenue in St. Paul. And coconut water — it’s home to me.

What’s next? Next Mardis Gras season, we’ll be rolling out a new kind of King Cake that is the French version. The one we offer now is New Orleans style. We’re also getting ready to move into a rebranding phrase. It will be product led, responding to our community and responding to the 100 years of tradition. We’re looking at a new name. We’re throwing around PJ’s Nouveau, but aren’t really sure.

PJ MURPHY’S BAKERY

Where: 1279 Randolph Ave., St. Paul

1279 Randolph Ave., St. Paul For more information: 651-699-9292; pjmurphybakery.com

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify the history of ownership.