From the streets to the White House through a kitchen door: How a local baker’s passion changed his life
It began, as all good things do, with chocolate chip cookies – in David Bondarchuck’s earliest days, sifting, mixing and baking in his grandmother’s kitchen.
As the story goes, Bondarchuck was something of a culinary prodigy, learning the basics of professional baking with his grandma and growing a passion of the culinary arts as far back as memory serves him. The story begins before his appearance on Martha Stewart and before catering the 2011 holiday party at the White House.
“Growing up, I baked with my grandmother,” he said with a faint twinkle in his eye. “That’s how I learned the fundamentals. It wasn’t like baking cookies – it was real professional cooking.”
Bondarchuck’s mother and father-in-law had moved to California when the budding epicurean was still young, and David decided to stay in Colorado and move in with his biological father, close to his grandparents. That was what afforded him the opportunity to spend hours in the kitchen with his grandmother, though his great-grandfather was an equally powerful culinary force: He owned a bakery near the University of Denver. 
While Bondarchuck’s euphoric childhood was lined with pastries and pies, it wouldn’t always be so delicious and happy. It wasn’t long before his grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, treatable only at a medical facility in Arkansas. From that point on, Bondarchuck’s grandparents were scarce, spending most of their time in treatments, or traveling to and from Little Rock. The kitchen adventures suddenly ceased, and while Bondarchuck was living with his abusive and alcoholic biological father, things started to unravel.
As Bondarchuck recalls, there was one night when it all came to a breaking point: “I remember when it got out of control. My dad was arrested because his temper got the better of him. When the police came and got me out of the house, they asked if I had any family to go to. My grandparents were in Little Rock at the time, but I had no idea when they’d return. So they dropped me off at a youth shelter where I was going to wait. But they were gone for six months – and I had no way to contact them. I just ended up staying there.”
To most of us, this would be the ultimate defeat. Suddenly, at age 16, Bondarchuck found himself homeless and without parents. What could he possibly hope to do?
Being unwaveringly tenacious, the young Bondarchuck seized the opportunities he had and devoted himself to books. Cookbooks in the Denver Public Library.
“I lost myself in those pages,” he said. “It was kind of my escapism. But it also made me remember my grandmother. I know when you cook and when you bake, you have control over things. I didn’t really feel like I had control over anything in my life at that point, and reading cookbooks offered me a measure of control.”
At nights in the shelter, he would stare agape at the television watching none other than Martha Stewart create, cook and concoct. She came to be an idol for Bondarchuck – the inspiration to do what he had always wanted to do: cook and bake.
From that point on, things started looking up. Just as life sometimes takes us in directions we cannot expect or anticipate, it took Bondarchuck from the shelves of DPL to a rendezvous with his childhood friend, Peter Jones. A pact made between the two as children to be each other’s best men led Peter to search for David. In the middle of Bondarchuck’s worst years in the shelter and at the cusp of Jones’s nuptials, they had a most unlikely reconnection.
“He came to the shelter to find me,” Bondarchuck recalled. “I guess some of my grandparents’ neighbors told him where I was. When he saw me, he told me right away that I wasn’t staying, that I was going up to where his folks were in Greeley. The Jones family heard my story and invited me to come stay with them – under a couple of conditions. One: I had to go back to school. Two: I needed to get a job. So, I got a job at McDonalds, rented a room in their house, and finished high school.”
Bolstered and given new hope, Bondarchuck made his way to community college and further explored his culinary side. He moved from McDonald’s to Chipotle – a dramatic shift in the focus on local and sustainable ingredients. A keen interest in both cooking and baking grew in Bondarchuck, until, pushed to experiment by his own burgeoning creativity, he began creating holiday cookie boxes for friends and family.
“People wanted my cookie boxes, but I was just baking for fun,” he said as he laughed and threw up his hands in disbelief. “But they knew what I was making was more than just your average cookie – they were really, really good. And they wanted to buy them. That’s how my catering company, Scratch Catering, got started.” That was 2007.
Scratch drew in hungry devotees in droves, but for Bondarchuck, the impetus to grow was never about making money. It was about bringing people together and offering an experience they never had before. 
“There’s so much time, love and care that goes into what I make. People notice a difference because of it. I mean, I make my own butter using heavy cream from Weld County, for God’s sake. It’s genuine food.”
And if that success wasn’t cause enough to celebrate, there was another chapter of success awaiting the baker.
From Scratch’s earliest days, Bondarchuck longed to be one of the many employed to create the holiday festival at The White House – from decorating to baking peanut butter cookies. Every year, he would send letters asking to be part of the celebration, and for years, he never heard back.
That is until last year. It was in October when he got the letter asking him to apply to be an official White House caterer. One form and two weeks later, an official invitation was sent asking David Bondarchuck to help the Obamas – and the entire country – make Christmas 2011 one to remember.
And oh, it was. Not only did Bondarchuck relish the bustle of making the The White House walls shine with holiday joy, but he enjoyed yet another surprise: an interview with National Public Radio host Ari Shapiro.
“That’s when I talked about Martha Stewart,” Bondarchuck gushes, “and how she did everything from scratch. He aired my interview on NPR, and someone from Martha’s show heard my story. Soon after, I got an invitation to appear on her show. I was on the air December 21st.”
David described the day of the show as the highlight of his life. “It almost makes me cry – even now,” he said, his eyes watering. “It meant so much to me to be with her. She was so lovely. There I was, this caterer, this guy, always striving to achieve that Martha status in whatever I did. When I was homeless, I felt like I was nothing. So I put my best foot forward to show the world that I was just as good as everyone else. And then, in that moment, on that show, I realized I had achieved that – and more. I can’t even describe how it felt. It was truly amazing.”
Spending a show with Martha was, without question, one of the pinnacles of Bondarchuck’s life and career, but it wasn’t enough to absorb those surreal minutes in front of the camera and let it all go. It only charged him more – charged him to bake better, cook more, and bring people together in ways they had never experienced.
“At some point, I really just want to give back. Even if it’s just one person, I want to inspire them the way I have been inspired.”
It’s hard not to be. In the interview, we joked about the curious fame that has shaped Bondarchuck’s life of late, until I asked a question that has rested in the shadows for most of his life. I asked him about being gay.
“You know,” he said with a deep sigh, “my homosexuality and professional career have been two separate things. My experience in high school in Greeley was tough – filled with taunting and people throwing things at me. Until, one day, someone threw a book at me in science class and called me a faggot. I stood up, turned around, and said, ‘Yeah, I’m gay, and what are you going to do about it?’ In that moment, the bullying stopped, and I became the most popular kid in the school.”
Since that propitious day, Bondarchuck’s sexuality has never been a part – positive or negative – of his personal and professional success. It’s just a part of who he is – the happy-go-lucky, energetic caterer that just happened to cook in The White House.
Seduced by his story, I asked Bondarchuck what’s next – what challenges can possibly offer excitement for someone who has already overcome so much. He looked at me and laughed, his lips curled up into a smile. “Just keeping cooking and baking,” he said matter-of-factly. Why would he do anything else? It’s what he does best – from scratch.
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