Alen Ramos and Carolyn Nugent had worked side-by-side in the kitchens of some of the best restaurants in the world, including El Bulli on the Spanish coast and the Fat Duck in the English countryside. But they finally found their calling in the Denver suburbs.

“When the pandemic hit, we were working for someone else, building their empire again. We said, ‘OK, it’s time to do something different,’” Mr. Ramos said.

They moved from Chicago to Parker, Colo., where Mr. Ramos has family, and like so many other bakers in 2020, started a bakery out of their home, opening Poulette Bakeshop the following year.

In a strip mall, between a tutoring center and an IV hydration business, Poulette is an unlikely destination for world-class French pastry. But its customers have enthusiastically folded the couple’s honoré bretagnes and vanilla bean spandauers into the suburban rituals of birthday parties and post-baseball-game treats.

“A 6-year-old had a canelé for the first time at our bakery,” Mr. Ramos said. “Where else would he go to get a canelé?”