Where Culinary Artistry Meets Café Charm and French Specialty Market
interview+photography by Jorge Perezchica
Elevate your sandwich experience with paninis that redefine lunchtime, showcasing gems like The Roma and The Chicken Club. Indulge in the delightful Le Bonjour for breakfast until 11 am, and enhance your meal by treating your taste buds to a selection of refined beverages, ranging from soul-warming coffees to exquisite teas and matcha creations. This unique destination, not only introduces extraordinary paninis but also makes typically hard-to-find ingredients accessible to consumers, revitalizing dining options with larger, higher-quality sandwiches.
Step into Baby’s Marché, a warmly inviting blend of cafe and specialty market curated by the dynamic duo, Chef Justin and Johanna Snyder. Immerse yourself in a symphony of flavors, where farm-to-table ingredients, European flair, and a passion for exquisite tastes come together seamlessly. As you wander through the shelves, inhale the enticing scent of aromatic candles. Explore carefully chosen teas, candies, utensils, and an array of cookbooks and cookware, igniting your culinary curiosity.
Chef Justin Snyder, with a 16-year career across various global cities, brings a wealth of experience, having lived in France and honed his skills at one of the world’s premier pastry schools. Johanna Snyder, his partner in both life and business, is an entrepreneur with a small business specializing in organic skincare and home aromatherapy. Their passion for exceptional food and a unique dining experience culminated in the launch of Baby’s Marché. The joint venture holds sentimental value, as “baby” affectionately refers to Johanna. Their extensive travels, especially to France, play a pivotal role in shaping the restaurant’s ambiance and offerings, infusing a taste of European flavor into the Californian desert.
We recently had the privilege of sitting down for a conversation with chef Justin Snyder. Read on for the Coachella Magazine interview.
The Culinary Journey
Coachella Magazine: Introduce yourself and tell us about your background as a chef.
Justin Snyder: I’ve been a chef now for going on 16 years. I started in San Diego, ended up in San Francisco, New York, Chicago for a little bit doing Michelin. And after that, I ended up in Asia a couple different times. Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong. And then I ended up in Europe as well. France, where I went to pastry school. That’s kind of where I got my basis for this. And then I ended up in Germany and Ukraine for a little bit.
CM: Can you share the story behind “Baby’s Marché” and how it reflects your personal connection?
JS: Basically, we wanted to come up with a concept that wasn’t just my own, but one that we could include my wife. So the name baby is actually a nickname that I call my wife. And then marché is what you call market in French. So each year, we try to go to Europe and get some inspiration. Like last October, we were in Paris and I went to pastry school there. We’ve been to Paris even on our honeymoon. But we travel around, we try to bring a little bit more of that influence here to the desert.
CM: Is the approach to cooking in France much different from cooking here?
JS: Yes. So what people don’t understand is, it was almost like that show ‘The Bear,’ I don’t know if you guys seen that. I like that show.
So I did Michelin for 10 years, some of the world’s best kitchens that you could ever imagine. And when people are like, “How did you end up here?” I’m like, “This is probably the most fun I’ve had cooking in probably 10 years.” I was doing a hundred hours a week for nine years. It was tough. But now here, I’m still doing a lot, but I’m working for myself and, you know, I’m having a lot of fun serving these sandwiches up to your belt <laugh>. And that’s what everybody said, because besides this, I do private chefing as well, it’s all the elite clientele that come out here, I always cook for ’em. That’s what I kind of did for the last three years before this kinda fell into our laps.
CM: How do you balance life between being a private chef and managing Baby’s Marché?
JS: Balance is one of those key words. What I try to tell people nowadays is chef life. I’m used to working the long hours. So what we do is, when I decided to open a restaurant, a lot of the bigger chefs nowadays either close their restaurants or they only operate four days a week. So that was something I told myself. If I was ever gonna go back to a restaurant, it was only gonna be four days a week. That’s why we’re closed Saturday, Sunday, Monday. It’s not just because of today with increase in labor and food costs, we did it to where there’s a quality of life again, especially in this industry. So for me, my private chef is a little bit more fine dining, I do those at night. But when I first started, I was doing about six a week or something, and now I do about three a week. So I pick and choose my battles nowadays. But as far as balance, it’s just part of the life.
Vision and Travel Influences
CM: How did the vision for Baby’s Marché come about, and how do your travels to France play a role in shaping the restaurant’s atmosphere and offerings?
JS: Me and Johanna were always talking, “Hey, if I was going to start another restaurant, like an actual restaurant, then it was gonna be what we envisioned that we could do as a team.” So one of the things that we ended up tying into was our love for Europe. Our love and our passion for not only European ingredients, but that lifestyle and the presentation and kind of what French food’s about is how it started coming along. So we started taking it really serious about five years ago. We were thinking about doing this and our trips to Paris started going more than just, you know, going there to Louvre and going to the Eiffel Tower and doing this.
It started with visiting all my friends who were chefs there, eating a lot more restaurants, starting to take a lot more notes and pictures, and having this vision turn from an idea board to a business plan. And then it kind of sat there. So about two years ago, I started looking for a restaurant and then this one kind of just fell into our lap. I was, you know, super blessed how it came about. We didn’t even know this existed. We didn’t know what was here before, but somebody knew, somebody who knew somebody. And within a month we were signing leases and taking over the whole spot. It was crazy how fast it happens when it does happen, <laugh>.
CM: What was the biggest challenge launching Baby Marché, and how did you overcome those obstacles?
JS: Probably the way that this restaurant was designed, this doesn’t have a grease trap, doesn’t have an oven. We do everything off of a panini press. So I was used to having full blown kitchens, anything I ever needed. Usually I’m used to a full build out, so I’d come up with a menu and I’m like, “Okay, I need this, this, this, this, this, this, this.” And I build a restaurant around that. This time it was backwards. And that was the fun part. Then we found out we had like a month to open. So I was like, “Even funner,” you know, <laugh>.
CM: What inspired the decision to combine a specialty meat market and cafe, offering world-class ingredients for home cooking alongside small plates dedicated to your travels?
JS: So what ended up happening was, me being a private chef out here, I had to use all my suppliers from around the world, which was hard. What ended up happening at one point was, I was using like a hundred different suppliers to do my dinners, which I met from Singapore and when I was in Hong Kong and all that crazy stuff. So when I moved out here in the beginning, nobody had anything that I wanted, and I had to fly everything in. And I was at the airport like five days a week. So I would start cooking for these people, and they’re like, “Where’d you get this ingredient? How can I get this ingredient? Can you do this? Can you do that?” And then I’d be like, yeah, “I can get you this, but you need a business license. You need to hit minimums, you need to do this.”
So really out here, there’s a crowd that wants good food. Not only made for them, but majority of the time, a lot of people have really nice kitchens and homes, and they have the money to go buy all these crazy pans and equipment. They can’t get any ingredients to do it. It’s not like Los Angeles or something like that. So, I saw it as a niche. And also what we do here is, I work directly with farms. I don’t really try to use middlemen anymore, because there’s just room for air. So, you know, like Lindsay Ranch produces washugyu. We’re probably the only person within 200 miles that can actually use this kind of meat. You know, we work with people Margaret River, out of Australia. There’s only one distributor in all of America that can, you know, actually distribute this meat.
So as far as ingredients go, we definitely hold a strong point in this market. I’m trying to choose my words wisely. <Laugh>, I picked a lot of these these farms hand in hand. And I’ve used them for the last, you know, five, 10 years all over the world. So I have really good connections with not just suppliers, but with the farmers themselves. I know exactly when the cow was born, what it’s eaten at least 99% of their diet. I know when they’re processed, when they’re shipped. It is not just like, “Here’s a steak,” instead it’s like, I almost know the name of the cow by the time he comes here, you know?
Signature Dishes and Farm Standards
CM: Are there specific signature dishes or items on the menu that embody the essence of Baby’s Marché?
JS: Yes. So our beef tartar is one that’s always evolving. We always showcase some kind of wagyu, especially specialty wagyu. You’re gonna see domestic washugyu, like we talked about. Or you’ll be using Jack’s Creek, which just won best steaks in America. Another one that we do is our beef pastrami. That’s our signature. We sell a lot of pastrami right now. And then, as far as our cold sandwiches go, it would end up having to be the Turkey by far. That one just outsells everything right now. We do have some Italian sandwiches, which people end up loving, but I think the market’s super saturated in Italian. So we’ve been having really strong opinions and love for those two sandwiches for sure.
Businesses Partnership and Dynamics
CM: As business partners and a married couple, how do you navigate the dynamics of working together, and what strengths do each of you bring to the table?
JS: So, we actually mesh really well. We figured out our roles, which is super good. As far as front of the house, design, all that stuff, that’s Joanna. When it comes down to back of the house, food design, sourcing, things like that, that is up to me. And we respect each other on those boundaries, which is nice during work, and it’s just one of those things where you gotta leave work at the door. I know some people say that’s easier said than done. It is, but you have to communicate. And if you don’t communicate <laugh>, it gets very hard, very confusing, really fast. So we learned that, because we’ve been together like eight years and I’ve dragged her all over this world doing my job, from San Diego to five other cities before we ended up in the Middle East — communication was gonna be key. And I’m lucky ’cause she is very good at her strengths. She can design something, get things up, knows modern trends, knows what’s gonna catch people’s attention. It is not a one man job. I would not be able to do this without her, that’s for sure.
Community Contribution and Future Plans
CM: How do you see Baby’s Marché contributing to the local community and enriching the culinary scene in Indian Wells, Ca?
JS: So, this is where I gotta pick my words wisely. <Laugh>, I love what we do and what I do specifically. I love being a chef. Everybody’s always asked me, “Why are you a chef?” And I say, “Because I love to cook food. I love to make people happy.” There’s a lot of other industries where you can make a lot more money and do a lot less work, but that’s kind of not what my mission in life is. So what we ended up doing here was bringing usually unaccessible ingredients to a direct consumer basis. So in laymen’s terms, it means you can get high quality food prepared or ingredients to take home in a market which likes it and demands it. We were very fortunate with the direction of how it goes. And on top of that, the community here, it’s a super small community, but they embraced us really fast, which was really nice.
And I think over the course of maybe the last five years, the industry standard has kind of changed. And I think bringing value back to dining options has been key. Here, our sandwiches are bigger, they’re filled out. And it’s not only that, we’re using more higher end ingredients. So when it comes down to things like that, it’s more about you get what you pay for, but you’re also happy with what you pay for.
CM: Is there anything else you would like to share that we haven’t talked about?
JS: Just this year’s gonna be a crazy big year. We are looking to expand really, really fast because we basically came to a point where we have to get a bigger spot, which is a good problem to have, you know, “knock on wood.”
CM: How many years have been open?
JS: One year. We celebrate one year anniversary. It’s coming up February 1st.
CM: Any Valentine specials?
JS: Actually, yeah. We’ll be doing Wagyu select boxes that you’ll get to take home and have your own date night. So we’ll be bringing in some dry edge tomahawks. Again, we’ll be doing different cuts of Wagyu, but then you’ll also have your sauce, compound butter, seasoning kits, dessert. We usually do like a cool McConnell’s special edition ice cream and stuff like that.
CM: What do you love most about the food industry?
JS: What I love the most in this industry is, being able to create and express myself through food. You know, artists get to paint and singers get to sing. And for me, making food is how I get to show who I am as a person.
www.babysmarche.com
Location: 75270 US Highway 111, Suite 200
Indian Wells, Ca. 92210
Hours: Tuesday – Friday 8:00am – 3:00pm
Closed: Saturday – Sunday – Monday