History of California bread
Encyclopedia
The history of California bread as a prominent factor in the field of bread baking dates from the days of the Gold Rush and the development of sourdough
bread in San Francisco, and includes the development of artisan bakeries in the 1980s, which strongly influenced what has been called the "Bread Revolution".
of 1849, and many restaurants make their own bread. However, in the wholesale market
(which distributes bread regionally to restaurants and grocery store
s) was marked by a slow decline from the early heyday, and the subsequent emergence of a new generation of artisan bakers.
. Sourdough, invented in ancient Egypt and common in parts of Europe, became the primary bread of San Francisco during the California Gold Rush
. Gold miners valued it for their camps because of its durability, and the relative ease of obtaining yeast. Although many different kinds of starter
are suitable for making sourdough, specific local native species of wild bacteria
(Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis
) and of yeast (Candida milleri
) have been recently isolated as the dominant cultures in the most prized local breads. By 1854 there were 63 bakeries in San Francisco. "Starter" yeasts were either carefully kept and maintained by each bakery as a "mother starter", or simply allowed to generate from the ambient air.
Boudin Bakery
was founded in 1849 by Isadore Boudin, son of a family of master bakers from Burgundy, France. Boudin came for the gold trade but instead opened a bakery, where he invented the San Francisco style of sourdough by applying French baking methods to the fermented dough breads the California miners were eating. Parisian Bakers, for many years the most popular bread in San Francisco, started in 1856. In Oakland
, Toscana started in 1895 and Colombo started in 1896. Parisian supplied San Francisco's oldest restaurant, Tadich Grill, for 141 years until the bakery was shut down. The three surviving bakeries continue to use each of their respective mother starters, developed in the 19th century.
, led to poor quality bread in San Francisco. The mid-20th century began a "Dark Ages" for bread, as most Americans began to eat prepackaged, sliced loaves. Beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the 1980s, there was less fresh bread available across America, leading writer Henry Miller
to exclaim, "You can travel 50,000 miles in America without once tasting a piece of good bread." Much of the decline paralleled the nationwide trends, both for bread and other foods, of consolidation, lower priced and frozen ingredients, reducing labor costs, and adding preservatives for longer shelf life
. Mechanization requires drier dough than hand-formed loaves, leading to drier loaves that do not have the same large air bubbles and chewy consistency of good sourdough. Despite quality issues, sourdough remained popular. Today it accounts for 70% of all bread sales among the top three independent bakeries.
Some small producers from the Gold Rush
era kept the sourdough tradition and continued to produce bread. Steven Giraudo, an artisan baker who immigrated from Italy in 1935, took his first job in America at Boudin, then bought the bakery out of bankruptcy in 1941. He later sold it to a larger company, but after a series of ownership changes the bakery was bought back by two of Giraudo's sons through their investment bank. The Giraudo family bought Parisian, transferring it to the San Francisco French Bread Company of Oakland, California
, in 1984. That company was in turn acquired by Interstate Brands Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri
, in 1993, which went bankrupt and shut down Parisian in 2005.
Despite their history, the old bakeries that survived are not small, and are not "artisan" operations in the common sense. The top three bakeries employ 1,000 people and make sixty million "units" of bread per year (mostly loaves) that they sell in more than 4,000 Northern California
outlets, as well as airports and supermarkets throughout the United States. Boudin operates 32 retail outlets, mostly as coffee shop
s, including notable branches at Disneyland and Fisherman's Wharf
. San Francisco Sourdough Bread Company bought both Colombo and Toscana, and replaced the hearth
ovens used for handmade sourdough with high capacity ovens. Before its demise, Interstate was making 217,460 loaves of bread and 71,540 rolls a week from the Parisian factory in San Francisco, as well as Wonder Bread
, Twinkies, and Ho Hos snacks from a sister factory nearby.
while baking (a technique developed in Vienna, Austria), creating a shiny surface that may be crusty or chewy, while keeping the interior moist. "Rustic" breads use whole grain
flours, including rye
flour and whole wheat. Breads are "scored" with decorative cross-cuts, along which the bread cracks while rising and baking to allow steam to escape. Scores are made in distinctive styles that identify each bakery.
The first of the many new companies arose out of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
near Carmel Valley, California, a group of monks derived from the San Francisco Zen Center
(which owns Greens Restaurant
) that began baking bread in 1963 and operated a bakery in San Francisco's Cole Valley from 1976 to 1992. A pastry shop, Just Desserts, operated the bakery from then until 1999.
The Cheese Board Collective
opened in 1967 in what would later be known as Berkeley's "Gourmet Ghetto", and became a worker-owned cooperative in 1971.
In 1970 Narsai David
, now food and wine editor of KCBS
and a nationally-syndicated food writer, opened a highly successful catering business and restaurant, Narsai's, in Kensington, California
. Narsai's became renowned for its breadmaking. David explained his philosophy: "Using nothing more than flour, water, salt and yeast, you could bake a loaf of bread in as little as three hours—or you could take 24 hours. The one that takes 24 hours has developed a much more sophisticated flavor. Take two to three hours and the bread tastes like flour and water."
Acme Bread Company
Founder
Steve Sullivan grew up in Los Gatos, California
, and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley
in 1975, intending to major in rhetoric
. He earned money as a busboy
at Chez Panisse
. While riding his bike through England during a summer trip to Europe he bought English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David
's 1977 book on breadmaking and bread history. Excited by the book, and wanting to recreate the bread he had enjoyed in Paris, he began experimenting with baking for himself. In 1979, when Chez Panisse's then-supplier, the Cheese Board Collective, could not keep up with its demands, Sullivan became the restaurant's in-house breadmaker. However, his breadmaking and the restaurant's food preparation were both competing for the restaurant's limited physical space. In 1983 he left, with the restaurant's encouragement, to open his own company, Acme. Jeremiah Tower
, then head chef, encouraged Sullivan to study breadmaking at Narsai David's bakery. He and wife Susan launched Acme with approximately $180,000 of seed capital, half funded by Doobie Brothers guitarist Patrick Simmons
through a leaseback
arrangement.
Steve and Susan Sullivan took a honeymoon in France the year before starting the business. During their visit to a winery in Bandol, the son of the owners suggested they make their mother starter from the natural yeast of wine grapes. On returning home, he made the starter Acme continues to use in all of its bakeries by collecting unsulfered Cabernet Sauvignon
and Zinfandel
grapes from a vineyard his father owned, and adding them to a flour and water mixture.
Dianne Dexter and her husband David started Metropolis Baking Company, hiring a head baker who had worked at both Acme and Semifreddi's. La Farine Bakery was bought by Jeff Dodge, who had worked with Acme for six years. Glenn Mitchell, who had baked with Simmons at Chez Panisse, started Grace Baking Co. at the "Market Hall" food emporium in Oakland, California
in 1987. Craig Ponsford founded Artisan Breads in Sonoma, California
in 1992. The Cheese Board helped set up a sister cooperative, Arizmendi Bakery, in 1997 in Oakland, and another in San Francisco's Inner Sunset in 2000. Other notable brands with wide local distribution include the French-Italian Bakery in San Francisco's North Beach
(which distributes primarily to restaurants), The Bread Workshop, and Noe Valley Bakery.
All told there are at least 65 "Microbakeries" in the Bay Area, including than the original bakers (Boudin, Colombo, and Toscana), collectively making approximately 2.4 million loaves of bread per week All are small locally-owned operations that distribute locally, except for the "big three" and Grace Baking, which was purchased in 2002 by Maple Leaf Foods
, a Canadian firm, and distributes nationally to Safeway
and Costco
. Grace maintains quality standards by baking the bread only partly, with final baking at the point of sale. Recently, Artisan and Boudin have entered into a distribution arrangement.
Although they represent a return to older ideals of craftsmanship, modern San Francisco breadmakers do not generally try to recreate old-style bread. Instead, the bakeries compete to develop signature loaves and to develop unique shapes, flavors, and styles. Oven technology is greatly improved. Because sourdough is even more sensitive to ambient weather
than other bread, bakeries are heavily dependent on climate control
, refrigeration, and meteorological measurements and predictions to maintain ideal temperature and humidity conditions, giving them a consistency that would have been impossible during the Gold Rush.
Technically competitors, the various commercial bakeries keep cordial relations and openly share information, mirroring an international culture of collegiality among small bakers. When Ponsford opened Artisan in 1992, Grace, Acme, Semifreddi’s, and Metropolis, all shared advice and information. Ponsford went on to lead the industry association, the Bread Bakers Guild of America.
Specialty bakers are not the only source of artisan bread in the Bay Area. Large grocers such as Safeway
, Whole Foods
, and Andronicos have in-store bakeries that produce sourdough, baguettes, and rustic breads in their Bay Area locations. A number of local restaurants make bread for their own use and also retail sale
. Among these is a San-Francisco based chain, Il Fornaio
, that licensed a breadmaking concept from Milan, Italy, and has spread internationally and distributes to supermarkets. Restaurateur Pascal Rigo
has opened a string of restaurants and patisserie
s under the umbrella "Bay Bread."
Sourdough
Sourdough is a dough containing a Lactobacillus culture, usually in symbiotic combination with yeasts. It is one of two principal means of biological leavening in bread baking, along with the use of cultivated forms of yeast . It is of particular importance in baking rye-based breads, where yeast...
bread in San Francisco, and includes the development of artisan bakeries in the 1980s, which strongly influenced what has been called the "Bread Revolution".
Bread in San Francisco
There have been independent retail bakeries in San Francisco continuously since the California Gold RushCalifornia Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
of 1849, and many restaurants make their own bread. However, in the wholesale market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
(which distributes bread regionally to restaurants and grocery store
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
s) was marked by a slow decline from the early heyday, and the subsequent emergence of a new generation of artisan bakers.
Gold rush era
San Francisco is a favorable location for baking high quality bread, particularly sourdough, due to humidity and temperate climateTemperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
. Sourdough, invented in ancient Egypt and common in parts of Europe, became the primary bread of San Francisco during the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. Gold miners valued it for their camps because of its durability, and the relative ease of obtaining yeast. Although many different kinds of starter
Bread starter
A pre-ferment is a fermentation starter used in bread making, and is referred to as an indirect method. It may also be called mother dough....
are suitable for making sourdough, specific local native species of wild bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
(Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis
Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis
Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis is a species of lactic acid bacteria that helps give San Francisco sourdough bread its characteristic taste....
) and of yeast (Candida milleri
Candida milleri
Candida milleri is a species of yeast in the genus Candida. It is used, along with the bacterium Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, in the production of sourdough bread.-See also:*Candida *Sourdough*Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis...
) have been recently isolated as the dominant cultures in the most prized local breads. By 1854 there were 63 bakeries in San Francisco. "Starter" yeasts were either carefully kept and maintained by each bakery as a "mother starter", or simply allowed to generate from the ambient air.
Boudin Bakery
Boudin Bakery
Boudin Bakery is a bakery based in San Francisco, California, known for its sourdough bread...
was founded in 1849 by Isadore Boudin, son of a family of master bakers from Burgundy, France. Boudin came for the gold trade but instead opened a bakery, where he invented the San Francisco style of sourdough by applying French baking methods to the fermented dough breads the California miners were eating. Parisian Bakers, for many years the most popular bread in San Francisco, started in 1856. In Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, Toscana started in 1895 and Colombo started in 1896. Parisian supplied San Francisco's oldest restaurant, Tadich Grill, for 141 years until the bakery was shut down. The three surviving bakeries continue to use each of their respective mother starters, developed in the 19th century.
Postwar decline
A generation of decline and consolidation, starting after World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, led to poor quality bread in San Francisco. The mid-20th century began a "Dark Ages" for bread, as most Americans began to eat prepackaged, sliced loaves. Beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the 1980s, there was less fresh bread available across America, leading writer Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
to exclaim, "You can travel 50,000 miles in America without once tasting a piece of good bread." Much of the decline paralleled the nationwide trends, both for bread and other foods, of consolidation, lower priced and frozen ingredients, reducing labor costs, and adding preservatives for longer shelf life
Shelf life
Shelf life is the length of time that food, drink, medicine, chemicals, and many other perishable items are given before they are considered unsuitable for sale, use, or consumption...
. Mechanization requires drier dough than hand-formed loaves, leading to drier loaves that do not have the same large air bubbles and chewy consistency of good sourdough. Despite quality issues, sourdough remained popular. Today it accounts for 70% of all bread sales among the top three independent bakeries.
Some small producers from the Gold Rush
The Gold Rush
The Gold Rush is a 1925 silent film comedy written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin in his Little Tramp role. The film also stars Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite....
era kept the sourdough tradition and continued to produce bread. Steven Giraudo, an artisan baker who immigrated from Italy in 1935, took his first job in America at Boudin, then bought the bakery out of bankruptcy in 1941. He later sold it to a larger company, but after a series of ownership changes the bakery was bought back by two of Giraudo's sons through their investment bank. The Giraudo family bought Parisian, transferring it to the San Francisco French Bread Company of Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, in 1984. That company was in turn acquired by Interstate Brands Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, in 1993, which went bankrupt and shut down Parisian in 2005.
Despite their history, the old bakeries that survived are not small, and are not "artisan" operations in the common sense. The top three bakeries employ 1,000 people and make sixty million "units" of bread per year (mostly loaves) that they sell in more than 4,000 Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
outlets, as well as airports and supermarkets throughout the United States. Boudin operates 32 retail outlets, mostly as coffee shop
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
s, including notable branches at Disneyland and Fisherman's Wharf
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California
Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street...
. San Francisco Sourdough Bread Company bought both Colombo and Toscana, and replaced the hearth
Hearth
In common historic and modern usage, a hearth is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven often used for cooking and/or heating. For centuries, the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature...
ovens used for handmade sourdough with high capacity ovens. Before its demise, Interstate was making 217,460 loaves of bread and 71,540 rolls a week from the Parisian factory in San Francisco, as well as Wonder Bread
Wonder Bread
Wonder Bread is the name of three North American brands of white bread: One produced by George Weston Bakeries in Canada, another by Hostess Brands in the United States, and the third by Grupo Bimbo in Mexico.- United States :...
, Twinkies, and Ho Hos snacks from a sister factory nearby.
Artisan bread movement
The Bay Area's artisan bread movement represents a return to small production of handmade loaves. The artisan bread movement was in some ways a return to older techniques styles, but in some ways a shift. Unlike the Gold Rush bakers, they were based on French and Italian techniques, and very crusty. Among the hallmarks of the new artisan breads, loaves are exposed to steamSteam
Steam is the technical term for water vapor, the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. In common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of cooler air...
while baking (a technique developed in Vienna, Austria), creating a shiny surface that may be crusty or chewy, while keeping the interior moist. "Rustic" breads use whole grain
Whole grain
Whole grains are cereal grains that contain cereal germ, endosperm, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm. Whole grains can generally be sprouted while refined grains generally will not sprout. Whole-meal products are made by grinding whole grains in order to make...
flours, including rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
flour and whole wheat. Breads are "scored" with decorative cross-cuts, along which the bread cracks while rising and baking to allow steam to escape. Scores are made in distinctive styles that identify each bakery.
The first of the many new companies arose out of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
-External links:*...
near Carmel Valley, California, a group of monks derived from the San Francisco Zen Center
San Francisco Zen Center
San Francisco Zen Center , is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising the City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu...
(which owns Greens Restaurant
Greens Restaurant
Greens Restaurant is a landmark vegetarian restaurant in the Fort Mason Center in the Marina District, San Francisco, California, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge....
) that began baking bread in 1963 and operated a bakery in San Francisco's Cole Valley from 1976 to 1992. A pastry shop, Just Desserts, operated the bakery from then until 1999.
The Cheese Board Collective
Cheese Board Collective
The Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley, California, comprises two worker owned and operated businesses: a cheese shop/bakery commonly referred to as "The Cheese Board," and a pizzeria known as "Cheese Board Pizza." The Cheese Board is located at 1504 Shattuck Ave and Cheese Board Pizza is located...
opened in 1967 in what would later be known as Berkeley's "Gourmet Ghetto", and became a worker-owned cooperative in 1971.
In 1970 Narsai David
Narsai David
Narsai Michael David is an author, radio and television personality in the Bay Area.-Biography:Narsai Michael David was born in South Bend, Indiana to Assyrian parents Michael Khanno David and Shulamith Sayad. During college he supported himself by working in restaurants, then opening a plastic...
, now food and wine editor of KCBS
KCBS (AM)
KCBS is an all-news radio station in San Francisco, California, that is a key West Coast flagship radio station of the CBS Radio Network and Westwood One. Its transmitter is located in Novato, California. KCBS currently has studios on Battery Street, where it shares the location with co-owned KPIX...
and a nationally-syndicated food writer, opened a highly successful catering business and restaurant, Narsai's, in Kensington, California
Kensington, California
Kensington is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area, in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 5,077 at the 2010 census.- Law and government :Kensington is an unincorporated area of Contra...
. Narsai's became renowned for its breadmaking. David explained his philosophy: "Using nothing more than flour, water, salt and yeast, you could bake a loaf of bread in as little as three hours—or you could take 24 hours. The one that takes 24 hours has developed a much more sophisticated flavor. Take two to three hours and the bread tastes like flour and water."
Acme Bread CompanyAcme Bread CompanyThe Acme Bread Company is a Berkeley, California-based bakery that is one of the pioneers of the San Francisco Bay Area's "Bread Revolution", which in turn created the modern "artisan bread" movement in America, and remains a "benchmark" for commercial handmade bread.- Origin of Acme :Founder...
FounderEntrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
Steve Sullivan grew up in Los Gatos, California
Los Gatos, California
The Town of Los Gatos is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 29,413 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area at the southwest corner of San Jose in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains...
, and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1975, intending to major in rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
. He earned money as a busboy
Busboy
Busser, busboy and busgirl are terms used in the United States for someone who works in the restaurant and catering industry clearing tables, taking dirty dishes to the dishwasher, setting tables and otherwise assisting the waiting staff....
at Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California restaurant known for using local, organic foods and credited as the inspiration for the style of cooking known as California cuisine. Well-known restauranteur, author, and food activist Alice Waters co-founded Chez Panisse in 1971 with film producer Paul...
. While riding his bike through England during a summer trip to Europe he bought English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David CBE was a British cookery writer who, in the mid-20th century, strongly influenced the revitalisation of the art of home cookery with articles and books about European cuisines and traditional British dishes.Born to an upper-class family, David rebelled against social norms of the...
's 1977 book on breadmaking and bread history. Excited by the book, and wanting to recreate the bread he had enjoyed in Paris, he began experimenting with baking for himself. In 1979, when Chez Panisse's then-supplier, the Cheese Board Collective, could not keep up with its demands, Sullivan became the restaurant's in-house breadmaker. However, his breadmaking and the restaurant's food preparation were both competing for the restaurant's limited physical space. In 1983 he left, with the restaurant's encouragement, to open his own company, Acme. Jeremiah Tower
Jeremiah Tower
Jeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Wolfgang Puck, Alice Waters, and Jonathan Waxman, is generally credited with developing the culinary style known as California cuisine.-Biography:...
, then head chef, encouraged Sullivan to study breadmaking at Narsai David's bakery. He and wife Susan launched Acme with approximately $180,000 of seed capital, half funded by Doobie Brothers guitarist Patrick Simmons
Patrick Simmons
Patrick Simmons is an American musician best known as a guitarist and vocalist for the rock band The Doobie Brothers. His fingerstyle guitar playing complements the strumming style of Tom Johnston. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he has been the band's only consistent member throughout their tenure...
through a leaseback
Leaseback
Leaseback, short for sale-and-leaseback, is a financial transaction, where one sells an asset and leases it back for the long-term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it...
arrangement.
Steve and Susan Sullivan took a honeymoon in France the year before starting the business. During their visit to a winery in Bandol, the son of the owners suggested they make their mother starter from the natural yeast of wine grapes. On returning home, he made the starter Acme continues to use in all of its bakeries by collecting unsulfered Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...
and Zinfandel
Zinfandel
Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Puglia , where it was introduced in the 18th century...
grapes from a vineyard his father owned, and adding them to a flour and water mixture.
After Acme
Many other artisan bakers have followed in the steps of Tassajara, Cheese Board, Narsai's, and Acme, often started by veterans of other local bakeries and of Chez Panisse. Semifreddi's Bakery was opened in Kensington in 1983 by Eric and Carol Sartenaer, who had worked together at the Cheese Board Collective. In 1989 former Chez Panisse pastry chefPastry chef
A pastry chef or pâtissier is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods...
Dianne Dexter and her husband David started Metropolis Baking Company, hiring a head baker who had worked at both Acme and Semifreddi's. La Farine Bakery was bought by Jeff Dodge, who had worked with Acme for six years. Glenn Mitchell, who had baked with Simmons at Chez Panisse, started Grace Baking Co. at the "Market Hall" food emporium in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
in 1987. Craig Ponsford founded Artisan Breads in Sonoma, California
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
in 1992. The Cheese Board helped set up a sister cooperative, Arizmendi Bakery, in 1997 in Oakland, and another in San Francisco's Inner Sunset in 2000. Other notable brands with wide local distribution include the French-Italian Bakery in San Francisco's North Beach
North Beach, San Francisco, California
North Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's Little Italy, and has historically been home to a large Italian American population. It still holds many Italian restaurants today, though...
(which distributes primarily to restaurants), The Bread Workshop, and Noe Valley Bakery.
All told there are at least 65 "Microbakeries" in the Bay Area, including than the original bakers (Boudin, Colombo, and Toscana), collectively making approximately 2.4 million loaves of bread per week All are small locally-owned operations that distribute locally, except for the "big three" and Grace Baking, which was purchased in 2002 by Maple Leaf Foods
Maple Leaf Foods
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a major Canadian food processing company, founded in 1927 as a merger of several major Toronto meat packers.-History:The company was originally known as Canada Packers...
, a Canadian firm, and distributes nationally to Safeway
Safeway Inc.
Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's second largest supermarket chain after The Kroger Co., with, as of December 2010, 1,694 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern...
and Costco
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world...
. Grace maintains quality standards by baking the bread only partly, with final baking at the point of sale. Recently, Artisan and Boudin have entered into a distribution arrangement.
Although they represent a return to older ideals of craftsmanship, modern San Francisco breadmakers do not generally try to recreate old-style bread. Instead, the bakeries compete to develop signature loaves and to develop unique shapes, flavors, and styles. Oven technology is greatly improved. Because sourdough is even more sensitive to ambient weather
Ambient weather
Ambient Weather is an Arizona based weather station distributor and software manufacturer that specializes in customized solutions and products for the home and office, industry, schools, resorts, government and the media....
than other bread, bakeries are heavily dependent on climate control
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...
, refrigeration, and meteorological measurements and predictions to maintain ideal temperature and humidity conditions, giving them a consistency that would have been impossible during the Gold Rush.
Technically competitors, the various commercial bakeries keep cordial relations and openly share information, mirroring an international culture of collegiality among small bakers. When Ponsford opened Artisan in 1992, Grace, Acme, Semifreddi’s, and Metropolis, all shared advice and information. Ponsford went on to lead the industry association, the Bread Bakers Guild of America.
Specialty bakers are not the only source of artisan bread in the Bay Area. Large grocers such as Safeway
Safeway Inc.
Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's second largest supermarket chain after The Kroger Co., with, as of December 2010, 1,694 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern...
, Whole Foods
Whole foods
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...
, and Andronicos have in-store bakeries that produce sourdough, baguettes, and rustic breads in their Bay Area locations. A number of local restaurants make bread for their own use and also retail sale
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
. Among these is a San-Francisco based chain, Il Fornaio
Il Fornaio
Il Fornaio is a chain of twenty-two Italian-themed fine dining restaurants operating primarily in California in the United States. Il Fornaio also operates 2 bakeries in California.-History:...
, that licensed a breadmaking concept from Milan, Italy, and has spread internationally and distributes to supermarkets. Restaurateur Pascal Rigo
Pascal Rigo
Pascal Rigo is a French-American Restaurateur who owns a small "empire" of boulangeries, restaurants, and wholesale and retail bakeries in San Francisco and Mill Valley, California that operate as Bay Bread, La Boulange, and Cortez, Chez Nous, Gallette, and others.-Early life:Rigo was born in...
has opened a string of restaurants and patisserie
Pâtisserie
A pâtisserie is the type of French or Belgian bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets. In both countries it is a legally controlled title that may only be used by bakeries that employ a licensed maître pâtissier ....
s under the umbrella "Bay Bread."
External links
- Acme Bread Company site
- metropolisbaking.com — Metropolis Baking, official site
- artisanbakers.com — Artisan Bakers, official site
- arizmendibakery.com — Arizmendi Bakery, official site