OUR TEAM

Tasos Katsaounis,
Founder & CEO

Tasos was raised in North Texas and is first-generation Greek-American.  As the eldest in an immigrant family, he was taught by his mother at the young age of 10 how to bake his Yiayia’s bread recipes in their home kitchen. The Katsaounis family established their roots in Dallas, Texas, where they owned a Bar and Grill and Tasos had an initial taste of the hospitality industry.

While Tasos helped with the family business, he began his career in consulting, tailoring his focus on Learning and Development and Change Management.  After a nostalgic conversation among the family about his father-in-law’s fresh baked Greek bread, Tasos was inspired to step back into the kitchen and re-invigorate the recipes his mother had taught him as a child. A single loaf of bread quickly became a hobby, which evolved into an obsession. Before he knew it, Bread Man Baking Co., named by his then 6-year-old daughter Alexandra, was growing organically and gaining traction among the community. After some time in a local Houston commissary kitchen, where he produced for his first customers, Tasos left his 21 year career in consulting to build Bread Man Baking Co. into an independent commercial bakery.  Today,  Bread Man Baking Co. has partnered with some of the country’s top chefs, hotels, and grocery retailers.

Drew Gimma,
Director of Operations

Drew began baking at the age of 20 in Connecticut where he was born and raised.  After 4 years of working with a growing company he moved to New York City to gain experience working in a variety of bakeries, eventually landing at Sullivan St Bakery with Jim Lahey.  One year after joining Sullivan St he joined the team at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon and Per Se where he spent 3 years, becoming Sous Chef for his final year.

In 2013 he moved to Houston, TX to open Common Bond with Roy Shvartzapel as the Head Baker which offered him his first chance to create his own bread program and explore new techniques and expanding his usage of whole grains. In 2017 he joined Bobby Heugel and Justin Yu to help open Better Luck Tomorrow.  In 2018 they began discussing opening a restaurant that eventually became Squable which opened in April of 2019 where Drew was co-chef with Mark Clayton serving rustic European fare with American influence that placed a focus on bread that is often undervalued and underutilized on menus. He joined Bread Man Baking Co. in the fall of 2020.