Jean-Yves Charon and Paul Levitan met at the NASFT Fancy Food Show in 1993. Both were young, loved playing tennis, had wives from Chicago, and each owned their own small, successful specialty bakeries. In addition to sharing a passion for pastries as well as people, a friendship and partnership grew. Paul’s MBA, customer and people skills balanced Jean-Yves’ pastry expertise and business acumen and they found they worked well together.
Paul and Jean-Yves discovered that their respective businesses also had much in common; they shared sales brokers, distributors, suppliers and customers. In a combined effort to support their growing businesses, Jean-Yves and Paul began exhibiting together at trade shows and made the decision to establish Galaxy Desserts in July, 1998. They shared the vision of a company devoted to producing individual, innovative, gourmet desserts of exceptional quality. Building their production and management teams, raising venture capital, and purchasing customized equipment was the work of the early years of Galaxy Desserts. Paul’s skill in taking care of Galaxy’s customers combined with Jean-Yves’ natural inclination to live, eat and dream desserts was a recipe for success.
Life was busy, profitable and exciting as Galaxy became increasingly recognized in its first 5 years, with 5 particularly outstanding awards and honors, including NASFT Outstanding Dessert of the Year Award for the Grand Sequoia cake in 2003; “Oprah’s Favorite Things” 2002, Croissants; “Oprah’s Favorite Things” 2003, Molten Chocolate Cake Batter; and “Oprah’s All-Time Classic Favorite Things” 2005, Croissants. Galaxy Desserts has also been featured on The Food Network (Unwrapped, Food Finds, and Sugar Rush).
By 2005, Galaxy was expanding at a rapid rate and using every inch of the 18, 300 sq feet in the San Rafael facility. The growing business needed more space. In February 2005, Galaxy moved into its current state-of-the-art Richmond location on the San Francisco Bay in Northern California. The delicious dessert aromas inside the bakery balance the fresh ocean air outside the facility and it is truly a gorgeous place to work. In addition to the talented team currently employed, Galaxy Desserts is proud of its tradition of providing valuable internship training for a diverse group of international interns.
With his main rule for eating being always check the dessert menu first, Jean-Yves is constantly creating new desserts. In 2007, Jean-Yves invented his “Dessert Duos”. These are a variety of mousses and crème brulees packaged in elegant, individual shot glasses. The Dessert Duos have quickly grown to be one of Galaxy’s best sellers.
As we continue to build Galaxy Desserts into an exceptional business we are all proud of, creating exceptional desserts, staying loyal to our core values and learning from our experiences will all undoubtedly add to our rich history.
