When the bread oven exploded at Reunion Bread on Mother’s Day in 2023 — requiring a response from the fire department — it could have been the end of Ismael De Sousa’s business. Related: With an explosion of new bakeries, Denver is finally getting its just desserts Born to a Portuguese family and raised in Venezuela, De Sousa trained as a pastry chef in London and opened Reunion in 2019, bringing together all three cultural influences.