Original subtitles

[Narrator] This is a story of love and bread.

But mostly bread.

[Amalia] You're in for a treat!

[Narrator] This ancient staple's always been there for us.

You might even say it helped make us who we are.

[Artun] Am I being too romantic?

No.

[Narrator] Travel the world to experience unique

baking traditions.

Meet the bakers shaping the conversation.

[Azikiwee Anderson] I didn't choose the bread life,

the bread life chose me.

[Narrator] And fall in love with bread all over again.

For those who go against the grain,

who push the envelope and keep it weird,

have I got the city for you.

San Francisco's always drawn forward-thinkers and

innovators, even when it comes to what we eat.

Nestled between mountains and ocean.

It's in a region that happens to include some of the most

fertile farmland and plant-friendly climate

in the country, and that means, the best food.

Ooh, fancy.

[Sarah Owens] California has always, kind of,

been that land of promise.

I call it the land of milk and honey.

[Jonathan Kauffman] We have ready access to the freshest,

the most beautiful food that we grow here in the United States.

And so the cuisine that's developed over the past

150 years has really been allowed to center around

those fresh ingredients.

[Narrator] And few foods could use that California touch

more than bread,

that sliced and bagged staple that's longing to

get back to its naturally leavened roots,

with a baking technique known as sourdough.

It's a bread renaissance, unfolding in Bay Area bakeries

big and small.

[Justin Gomez] I think I fell in love with bread that very

first loaf that I made at home in a Dutch oven.

Bread is very much a craft.

It's a practice.

This pursuit of the best possible bread that I could

bake is what kept me doing this,

over and over and over.

[Narrator] Justin Gomez is a hobby baker who's embarking

down a bread-lined rabbit hole,

converting his basement into a bakery.

[Justin Gomez] We had made pizza one night and there was

a little bit of leftover pizza dough.

What happens if you take that dough and you just,

like, throw it into the oven?

And I was like, oh, uh, let's try it.

And I was learning more about our food systems,

where bread comes from.

I picked up a couple of bread cookbooks,

and was reading recipes,

and looking up stuff on social media,

and following bakers, and seeing these beautiful loaves.

That's when I just, kind of, fell in love with naturally

leavened sourdough breads, because there was just so much

more depth and nuance to what I understood bread to be.

Sourdough bread feels like magic.

[Rose Wilde] Sourdough.

It bakes for about 40 minutes and you have the most beautiful

smelling, huge, dark, crusty, open,

airy, creamy, incredible thing in front of you.

[Eric Pallant] This is a bread that's just,

can be beautiful, as well as tasty.

[Narrator] But sourdough isn't one kind of bread.

It's a method for making an endless variety of loaves.

And it all begins with a starter.

[Eric Pallant] So a starter is just another name for a

collection of wild yeast and wild bacteria,

meaning that they're in this room that I'm sitting.

We are surrounded by bacteria and yeast.

My name is Eric Pallant.

I am the author of Sourdough Culture.

And I'm a baker, an amateur baker,

but a baker.

If you take flour.

And some water and set it out on the counter

and wait three days.

The yeast will start to inflate with carbon dioxide and get

higher and higher.

The bacteria excrete acid so you can get sourdoughs that

have a yogurt like flavor or very vinegary.

All of those flavors are what make a sourdough bread

a sourdough bread.

[Narrator] That process of teasing life out of flour,

it's called fermentation and it's what sets sourdough apart

from your standard store bought loaf.

No wonder some bakers have publicly declared their

love for their starters.

[Justin Gomez] My sourdough starter is six years old.

His name is Steve.

Steve is fed meticulously on a very strict schedule

because you want to get him happy.

Much like my actual children, if they don't eat,

they're going to be angry.

Okay.

Allie, mama will buckle you in.

I first started getting into bread baking when Hudson

was an infant.

[Angela Gomez] Bye, buddy.

Mwah! I love you.

[Justin Gomez] I had a full time career in education.

But then we kind of came to this crossroads where

we had another kid on the way.

We were kind of asking, like, how do we want to function

as a family with two kids?

After two years of being a hobby baker,

I pulled a license and officially launched

Humble Bakehouse.

On a bake day, we're baking anywhere from 60 to

100 loaves out of your house,

which feels kind of crazy,

but it's also so much fun because it's spread out

and tucked in to these little parts of several days,

so I can achieve a bake of 100 loaves all around the

kids' schedule and all around the family life.

[timer beeping]

[Narrator] The secret to making sourdough is finding the time

for it, time for the dough to rise,

and the flavors from fermentation to bloom.

[Rose Wilde] Without time, we don't have sourdough.

My name is Rose Wilde.

When I was in law school, I tried my hand at making bread

and I knew this was going to be the rest of my life.

And I've been making bread the last 12 years.

I think what's really beautiful is that in today's world of

rush, rush, rush, rush, rush, rush,

slowing down to get flavor can be so rewarding.

[Narrator] For most of us, finding the time to make our

own bread was a pipedream.

Then came 2020.

[Eric Pallant] So the pandemic hits and suddenly,

there's something in our original brains that come back

to the dawn of civilization, that bread means survival.

[Man] A baking boom is underway.

[News Anchor] Many of us are discovering skills we never

knew we had.

[Man] I've made like six loaves of French bread.

[Eric Pallant] And while I was in lockdown,

I could have been working on my sit-ups,

or my crocheting or any of these things,

but instead, I'm gonna learn to make bread.

It's a way of saying, we're gonna survive this.

[water running]

[Azikiwee Anderson] The way that I've come to see it is,

the pandemic gave me time.

I think a lot of times we get bat around by the world,

and we end up doing things because it seems like

it's the right thing to do.

And if you take time and you pull back a little bit,

you start to really reevaluate and think like,

"Well, why do I do what I do?

Is it important to me?

[Narrator] This is Azikiwee Anderson,

but you can call him Z.

His early days in this city weren't easy but he's rapidly

becoming one of San Francisco's rising sourdough stars.

On a road to baking destiny

that took some unexpected detours.

[Azikiwee Anderson] When I tell people the things I've done in

my life, it sounds like I'm making it up.

For a major part of my life,

I was a professional roller blader.

Then I went to culinary school.

I was an aspiring personal chef.

Fast-forward, the pandemic hit and some of the parents

in the school that we're in, were like,

"Why don't we share recipes?

And sending around pictures.

People making a loaf."

And so then the weird part of my brain locked in like,

"I want to be good at this."

Starting from one loaf a week, to two loaves a week.

And then it turned into up to 150 loaves a day.

If you ever want to see what 100 loaves look likes,

this is what it looks like right here.

Literally like, every flat surface in our entire house

had bread on it.

No rest for the weary.

See you guys tomorrow!

My wife was like, "Okay.

So I think you've probably reached the point where maybe

you might consider going somewhere else," you know.

I feel like I've always been a person that has big dreams,

you know, big aspirations.

In that little ember, I'm like trying to fan it the best I can.

How can I keep that going?

[♪ peaceful music]

[Azikiwee Anderson] On my way to work,

I'd walk by one of oldest and one of the biggest bakeries

in the entire state.

I'm just looking at it like, "Oh my God,

I can't believe what they can do."

When you see 1849,

in some weird way I'm a part of that now.

[film reel playing]

[Narrator] San Francisco and sourdough have a history.

Legend has it that the bread-loving French miners

who rushed in for California gold in the 1800s

brought a sidekick, their starters.

[Jonathan Kauffman] The myth was that the miners, the 49ers,

who went off into the hills would take

bread dough with them.

[Eric Pallant] Each miner with their own sourdough starter

that they're protecting at gunpoint.

We're going to defend this with our lives to make our own food.

The story lives on, though, its origins may be suspect.

[Narrator] The Bay Area's come a long way since then,

but it's still on the frontier of American bread.

[Celine Underwood] When you come to visit Point Reyes,

you are really overwhelmed by the beauty of the area.

We like to call it "The Shire."

There was this cool, hippie group that moved out in the

60s and 70s.

They settled down, had their kids.

And so, a lot of my age group, our parents were those people.

I call them creators or makers.

They wanted an idyllic life.

The idea of opening a bakery, and sharing it,

it just felt like the right thing to do

and it felt really special.

[Narrator] Wander 60 miles north of San Francisco,

and you'll find the tiny town of Point Reyes.

And a magical little bakery run by Celine Underwood,

a sourdough veteran whose career is at a crossroads.

[Celine Underwood] Bread baking,

I always felt like it will always be a part of my life.

Couple more minutes.

But it's a hard job.

If you're a sourdough baker, it's a 24-hour process.

It's a lifestyle.

I started Brickmaiden when I was 24.

I had not a dime to my name.

But I had a passion and I think I gave myself,

like, two weeks before I was like,

"I'm going to sell my first loaf of bread."

I really wanted to take my baking to this fundamental

level of using wood fire.

You really have to understand it,

and develop a relationship to it,

and have a schedule with it.

I just remember so many nights coming in here

to rake out my coals.

I call Brickmaiden my first child,

because it really is.

It's, like, that demanding.

My second two children have really, you know,

I'm very unavailable in a lot of ways because

I'm so tied physically to this space for long hours at a time.

My bakers on our biggest bake day,

they get in at 12:30, 1:00 AM and start the bake then

in order to get everything out.

Did we do three currants today?

[Baker] I think we only did two.

[Celine Underwood] Oh, right, right,

because we did all the currant on one.

The majority of Brickmaiden's life,

I've been surrounded by female bakers.

They grew up with me.

We just all became a really strong family.

They're just very involved in the work that they're doing,

and they put their jams on, and they kind of just go for it

for 10 hours.

[Narrator] Celine runs a tightly choreographed bread ballet.

Her close-knit team makes everything from

baguettes to pastries.

But the star is her sourdough sesame levain.

[Celine Underwood] Toasted sesame seeds are so fragrant,

sourdough bread is so fragrant.

And it's just hearty but light, and has,

like, a beautiful chewy crumb.

It's so pleasing.

And then, you get to try it again the next day,

but you're always kind of chasing it on a certain level.

[Narrator] Sourdough isn't easy to master,

and every loaf comes out differently,

which is why this kind of bread was born.

[Eric Pallant] As Americans become more industrialized,

we're gonna see food production follow the production and

mechanization of everything else around World War II,

when we see a total transformation in how

bread is made.

[Rose Wilde] We've created bread to be a filler rather

than something that is profoundly nourishing.

[Eric Pallant] The 20th century in America is the

Wonder Breading of America.

♪ Hurrah for the Wonder Bakers ♪

[Wonder Bread] Ooh!

[Eric Pallant] It's the homogenization of a variety of

traditions into a single loaf that looks the same,

feels the same, is always going to be the same.

By the middle of the century, nothing could be more American

than Wonder Bread.

[Narrator] But while mainstream America went all in on

store-bought loaves, in San Francisco,

a bread counterculture was on the rise.

[Josey Baker] Sourdough is intrinsically wild.

It's a combination of wild yeast and bacteria.

You have to listen to these organisms,

how it looks, or how it smells,

or how it feels or how it tastes.

The end goal is a delicious and beautiful loaf of bread.

[Narrator] Josey Baker, and yes,

that's seriously his name, runs The Mill.

A Bay Area Mecca for the sourdough obsessed.

[Josey Baker] I think what people envision when they think

of artisan bread is they picture a free-form loaf

that has some flour dusted on the top.

I was like, "Why has the sandwich loaf been, like,

left out of the artisan bread movement?"

I'm going to make this style of bread,

and I'm going to make it in a pan."

I just think it's sort of funny to call it Wonder Bread.

And it's got the name Wonder in it.

Who doesn't love a little wonder?

[Narrator] Josey's the latest in a long-line of Bay Area

bread disruptors, a tradition that's rooted

in the radical 60s.

[Jonathan Kauffman] A lot of the young hippies were really

concerned about all of the chemicals in their food and

trying to strip all of the industrialization away

from their diets.

My name's Jonathan Kaufman.

I'm a food historian and a food journalist who was based in

San Francisco for 25 years.

There was this whole cluster of movements that were happening

in the Bay Area.

[Narrator] Case in point: The Diggers,

an anti-establishment theater troupe that gave away free,

homemade, whole grain bread to anyone who wanted it.

[Jonathan Kauffman] Digger Bread was nothing like Wonder Bread.

It was hearty, it had weight and you had to chew it.

It had flavor.

So that's what made it so appealing to this generation

who never knew that bread could be anything else.

The Diggers were very connected with all of the other political

activist groups that were happening around the Bay Area.

They were inspired by the Black Panthers over in Oakland,

the Chicano movement in the mission.

A lot of the movements were combining forces.

They would sort of share ingredients,

they would share equipment.

They were all inspired by the Civil Rights Movement.

Baking bread was really a revolutionary act.

It was an anti-capitalist reclamation of self and

your own power in the world.

[Azikiwee Anderson] Sourdough, it is power to the people.

Like, you don't have to be dependent on this

big, huge conglomerate, right?

You don't need someone else to make it for you.

Like, "Hey, you know, if I spend the time and energy,

I can feed a lot of people.

I can use my hands and make a big difference."

[♪ soft rock drumming]

[Azikiwee Anderson] A friend of a friend had a dilapidated

kitchen in Fisherman's Wharf, and they were like,

"Test your mettle, see what you can do."

And it was really, like, month to month.

I figured if I go there and I try to see what I can grow it into,

worst case worse is I just come back and do it at home.

[Baker] Did you get any sleep last night?

[Azikiwee Anderson] Barely any.

No, I, I went to sleep at about 1:00 and woke up at 3:00,

and then I went back to sleep till 4:00,

and then woke up.

No, it's actually, like adrenaline is a hell of a drug,

you know?

It's my favorite, it's my drug of choice.

When you tell people that you work 20 hours a day,

they're like, "That seems insane.

Why would you do that?"

See, yo.

Maybe I got Stockholm Syndrome, so.

But when you really love what you do,

it doesn't feel insane.

Feels good.

Okey-dokey.

My connection to the love of sourdough bread in particular,

was when we first got here in San Francisco,

we didn't really have a place to be.

My family came here under duress.

My father beat my mother close to death.

When she got out of the hospital,

the battered women protection group put us on a bus and

sent us to San Francisco.

Single mother of three kids.

We basically lived in the bus station for weeks.

We finally got a place to live.

My mother would make me hot chocolate with

sourdough bread toast.

And so when I, like, smell hot chocolate,

when I smell the sour in sourdough,

it means caring.

It means love.

[Narrator] No matter how much you love bread,

running a bakery in a big city like San Francisco could

cost you a lot of dough.

Sorry, had to do it.

That can be a challenge for humble bakers.

But a piece of California legislation is making

bread dreams a reality.

[Rose Wilde] The Cottage Food bakery law,

revolutionized how bread and so many other things

were made in this state.

This law, which lets you make items from your home and sell

them directly to the public, really allowed so many people

to think about making something they love into something that

could support them.

[Sarah Owens] When I started baking,

I started out of my kitchen and it was very easy for me to

start a business because of a Cottage Food Law.

My name is Sarah Owens.

I'm an author, a baker, and a horticulturalist.

Every person who operates under a Cottage Food Law,

has choices about how they want to grow,

the bread that they want to make,

and at what scale.

[timer beeping]

[Justin Gomez] I deliver my bread on a cargo bike.

Usually on delivery day, there's about 50 plus loaves

that I'm going to deliver throughout the community.

And it's just one of the most rewarding things when you pile

all those loaves onto the bike and your customers are just

going to be so stoked to have a loaf showing up

just before dinnertime.

-Playing some soccer? -Yeah.

[Justin Gomez] Right on. It's good to see you, bud.

I'll see you next time, okay? Have a good one!

Thanks, Kate!

To me, it's not about how many loaves you produce,

it's about that actual final end product that someone is

going to enjoy that makes you a baker.

See you later!

It's not necessarily your scale.

It's ultimately how you have turned that craft into

something more than just a hobby.

When we think about bread, as I understood it growing up,

it was a $1.99, $3 bread that came from the grocery store.

So people are accustomed to bread just being this super

cheap, super accessible thing.

Have a good one. Thanks, Bye.

[Shop Owner] Thanks, thanks. Bye, Justin!

[Justin Gomez] The Bay Area is absolutely primed to pay

$9 for a loaf of bread.

But to me, it's unfortunate that it's so expensive because

there's communities outside of the San Francisco Bay Area

where $9 for a loaf of bread would feel impossible,

and irrational and silly.

[Sarah Owens] California is incredibly expensive,

and it's become even more so

since we experienced the tech boom.

Real estate is incredibly expensive.

It's part of the reason why it's difficult to run

a food business.

[Narrator] Ever since the gold rush days,

San Francisco has been one of the most expensive cities

on the planet.

Fueled by Silicon Valley's high incomes,

housing here costs more than twice the national average.

[Sarah Owens] The challenges of just being able to produce

raw ingredients in a state like California,

it's unlike anywhere else in the US.

[Narrator] So how come store-bought bread is so cheap?

Turns out, the ultra-processed wheat that goes into

factory-made bread is subsidized by the government.

A benefit that's less available to farmers growing

local, organic grains,

the key ingredient for many artisan bakers.

[Josey Baker] When we opened our doors officially,

everything is going better than I think any of us had planned.

And then, this article comes out.

The title was, "$4 Toast:

Why the Tech Industry is

Ruining San Francisco."

[machine hissing]

I think it's a valid critique that our bread is

more expensive than other bread.

But if you compare a loaf of our Wonder Bread to a loaf of

the mass-produced Wonder Bread,

they're totally different foods.

"If I want my bread to be less expensive,

where am I going to compromise?"

[Staff Member] I would say.

It would be all obviously wholesale prices, which.

[Josey Baker] When it comes down to it,

I'm not gonna pay my staff less,

I'm not gonna start using conventional grain.

Oh, my goodness.

[laughing]

I'm proud of, of the work that we're doing and the,

you know, the way that we're, we're doing it.

[Justin Gomez] California, in general, can definitely feel

like a little bit of a bubble.

And by no means is the San Francisco Bay Area perfect.

But ultimately, what we are trying to move towards to as

a community are really more progressive,

inclusive values for a better world.

[Narrator] It's 6:00 am on San Francisco's

Fisherman's Wharf,

and Z Anderson is getting to work,

but for him, baking bread has become much more

than just a job.

[Azikiwee Anderson] I've never seen a Black baker.

I'm 40 something years old.

How is it that I've never seen someone that looks like me

represented in this whole entire world of baking?

I am very proud to be a person of color that comes at it a

different way because what inspires me is different.

During the whole George Floyd murder and upheaval,

I kind of fell apart.

There was a month where I, like,

literally cried every day, every other day.

The act of making bread actually gave me solace.

[♪ classical music]

All the anger and the frustration,

it didn't matter when I was doing that one thing.

[Narrator] When Z launched his business in 2020,

he called it Rize Up.

[Azikiwee Anderson] That icon to me means that you basically

are standing up and fighting against the status quo.

I just see it as power to the people.

[Narrator] In Z's kitchen, sourdough is an expression

of that philosophy.

He works with a wild array of ingredients that draw

inspiration from the San Francisco melting pot.

From hot peppers, to a purple tuber called ube that's popular

in Filipino cooking.

Ingredients that infuse his sourdough with color,

flavor and purpose.

[Azikiwee Anderson] Living in San Francisco,

we are a multicultural city.

And so, all of those flavors, like why wouldn't I want to

help represent and use my platform to show and highlight

these amazing, beautiful parts of what make us

all cool together?

When people see it, they're like,

"Wow, you care about us."

"You're spending all this time and energy,

like, putting into making something that represents me."

[Narrator] But Z's least flashy loaf might just be

the most meaningful.

It's a standard white sourdough called the "Pay It Forward".

When customers buy one, another gets donated to organizations

helping those in need.

[Shani Anderson] So many feelings,

heading back to where it all began.

[Narrator] The GLIDE Foundation is near and dear to Z

and his sister, Shani.

[Azikiwee Anderson] Part of the reason that I have a love for

food is when you go without, and you don't have,

it's much more important to you.

So the feeding of other people does feel like love.

Oh, the bread's here.

Because when you're hungry and someone feeds you,

you feel loved.

[Worker] Like a home-cooked meal.

You can feel the love, you know what I'm saying?

-Yeah. -So that's awesome, man.

[Azikiwee Anderson] Well, when we, when we first got here,

my mom was a single mom.

We lived in a battered women shelter.

And for a period of time, we were homeless.

And so we actually got fed here, so it, it's like.

[Worker] Seriously?

[Azikiwee Anderson] Yeah. It's like extra special, you know.

-That's, that's beautiful. That's a great story, man.

It's like come, it's coming full circle, man.

[Shani Anderson] It's so surreal.

[Azikiwee Anderson] When I go there,

I only feel like one step away.

Like sometimes I do feel like I have imposter syndrome,

like, like I shouldn't be exactly where I am.

Like my stars kind of worked out,

so I want to make sure that I treat people just the same way

I want to be treated.

And I want to make sure that if I have a little bit,

I'm going to break off a piece and give it to someone else

because I want them to be able to do what I did,

which is change your stars or make things,

use those negative things to make you stronger.

[Narrator] Back in Point Reyes, Celine Underwood is finishing

up another bake day at Brickmaiden,

a place that's been as much a home to her as a bakery.

[Celine Underwood] As a small business owner,

and as that person who is a perfectionist,

my hands are deep in here.

There's so much invested in every square inch of

the physical space here.

And there's so many memories invested in every corner.

I made an apartment upstairs when I was

pregnant with my second child.

So, it's like both my children,

like it feels like they're born in this space.

It's a old house, so all the doors just slam shut with the

wind, or people stomp up the stairs.

I remember just coming out of the room so many times just

being like, "Shut up!

I'm trying to put the baby to sleep."

And they'd be like, "Sorry," and, like, tiptoed.

[Rose Wilde] There's something very romantic about having the

corner store and bread smells wafting out the door.

But the reality is that it's an extremely demanding job.

There's a high burnout rate on a baker.

It can be a real financial and personal challenge

to take on this job.

[Celine Underwood] From the, the moment that I made the

decision to open a bakery and be a baker,

my life became kind of a slave to a timeframe.

You're doing that day in and day out,

every day for, you know, 20 plus years.

Baking for me, what made me get into it in the first place was

the exact opposite.

It was like losing yourself in the dough,

in the process of the dough.

I don't want to be confined by that.

Over the years, some really special staff members

who'd been with me for seven to 13 years,

their families are like, "Where are you?

You're gone for 10 hours at a time.

You're not here when the babies wake up,

you're not here to put them to bed because

you need to go to sleep."

I've watched them make the decision time after time to say

like, "This is too hard on me physically.

I need to rest.

This is, you know, my family's calling me."

I kind of looked around and I was like,

"What else do I have to build?"

I need to make that decision for myself.

[Narrator] After 20 years as a professional baker,

Celine is making a monumental decision.

She's selling Brickmaiden.

[Celine Underwood] I've kind of done what I came here to do.

I'll always be a baker.

I need to give a little bit back to myself.

[latch clicks]

[Justin Gomez] This is something that I know brings

joy to other people, but it also fills me up in such a way

that if I were doing anything else right now,

I don't know if I would be excited to get out of bed.

But, "Is this enough?"

What are you doing? Ready?

"Is this enough for my family?"

Constantly, there is this push and pull between what work

is perceived as valid in our society.

How was school today?

[Daughter] Good.

-Good? What did you learn, anything exciting?

[Daughter] No.

[Justin Gomez] Nothing?

I don't even work in a real bakery.

I work in a bakery that's in my house.

[Daughter] I don't want crust.

[Justin Gomez] You want the crust off?

[Daughter] Uh-hmm.

[Justin Gomez] You know I worked really hard for this

crust and you don't want it?

Do you want this one? No crust.

[Angela Gomez] Perfect!

[Justin Gomez] For some people, it'd be like,

"What? You left your career to do this?"

[Daughter] Me.

[Angela Gomez] You.

[Justin Gomez] As the kids are kind of getting older,

and they're going to go to school,

oftentimes, it comes up with Angela and I like,

"How long am I going to do this?

How long does this make sense?

Am I providing for my family in a way that is sustainable?"

[♪ funky music]

[Narrator] In downtown San Francisco,

social media bread friends Justin and Z...

[Azikiwee Anderson] What's up, dude?

[Narrator] Are meeting in person for the first time.

[Azikiwee Anderson] How you doing, brother?

[Justin Gomez] Good to see you. Good to see you in real life.

[Azikiwee Anderson] Nice to see you too. In real life.

[Justin Gomez] Not on the gram!

For me as a person of color in the baking space,

to see a Black baker come into the scene and was like,

"Hey, like, let's connect, like, you and I.

Like, how can I help you in what you're doing?"

[Azikiwee Anderson] The quality of the bread looks so good.

[Justin Gomez] Oh, thank you.

[Azikiwee Anderson] I only knew Justin Gomez

as Humble Bakehouse online.

I think the algorithm brought us together.

Being two people of color in a predominantly White field,

and just seeing kind of a reflection of yourself,

it's like, kind of, "Game recognize game."

When I'm shaping bread, I got a smile ear to ear.

[Justin Gomez] Yeah.

-Even if I'm late, even if I didn't get enough sleep,

I get my fix.

I can tell that I've gotten better because my bad days

are so much better.

[Justin Gomez] Yeah. Yup.

[Azikiwee Anderson] I feel a part of a club,

where it's like the waking up early,

the working hard, the standing on your feet all day,

like, I feel connected, physically connected to

what I've chosen to do.

And when I watch other people do it,

like, I just have a smile, like a nod,

like way to go, you know?

[Narrator] On Mondays.

[Josey Baker] Coming in with pizza here.

[Narrator] Josey Baker hosts a community pizza party

at The Mill.

[Josey Baker] What?

[Sarah Owens] I'm a hugger.

[Azikiwee Anderson] Oh, I'm a hugger, too.

[Justin Gomez] Can you say hi to Z? This is my friend Z.

-Hi. -He bakes bread, too.

-She's like, "No." "I don't know about this guy."

[Josey Baker] All right.

[Azikiwee Anderson] Oh, that looks good!

[Sarah Owens] I'll borrow some.

[Azikiwee Anderson] I'll be happy. Thank you.

[Justin Gomez] Very good.

[Azikiwee Anderson] I'm so glad I didn't miss this!

[Eric Pallant] Bread is about connectedness.

That sounds grandiose and, and, and really expansive.

But in so many ways, bread is about the survival

of a village, of a community, of a family.

To break bread together really means more than just,

"Here's a slice of bread," "Here's that sandwich."

But it's, it's about we're here in this together collectively

to move on into the future.

[cheering]

[birds chirping]

[rain]

[Celine Underwood] Since I left Brickmaiden,

I've been spending a lot of time with my family.

It's been a, a total joy to, to be able to do that again.

I can actually bake.

I can actually do the things that drove me to build this

business in the first place.

I want to just relax, just go to the beaches out here,

lay in the sun, sit on my deck, just totally be quiet.

You know, have no agenda, nothing to do.

[laughing]

Ooh, I could actually go to bakeries again

and maybe travel.

And, like, I can do a world tour.

[Azikiwee Anderson] Good morning, y'all.

[Group] Morning!

[Azikiwee Anderson] I used to think that when I made

30 loaves in a day, that it was a huge day.

Now we're doing about 2,000 to 2,500 in a week.

[Worker] Z, what's ETA on these being baggable?

[Azikiwee Anderson] Give me one second.

[Worker] Oh, so I shouldn't be standing around waiting.

[Azikiwee Anderson] In the last year,

the amount of change.

Do you think we're going to be ready for the

Ferry Building on Saturday?

[Worker] I think so.

[Azikiwee Anderson] We were doing one market a week.

We were in 15 to 16 stores.

Now we're in a 5,000 square-foot facility.

We're in six Farmers Market's a week.

I have, like, 22 employees.

Things have changed so much, I feel like I'm duct taped to the

front of a rocket ship.

We wanted to be in the Ferry Building Farmers Market,

which is like the Mount Everest

of San Francisco food scene markets.

It's where all the chefs go.

I've wanted to be in there now well over a year.

I'm always going back and forth because it's so new for me.

A lot of people I feel like in life,

"Oh, I have to do something," and this is, like,

one of the first times of my entire life where

I feel like I get to do something.

There's not a lot of fear.

It's just excitement.

I've heard that, too.

[Narrator] Living in a city that's always

reinventing itself,

baking a bread that plays by its own rules,

the sourdough life isn't easy.

But every baker charts their own path and success isn't

one loaf fits all.

[Azikiwee Anderson] It's not just about,

"Oh, I like fancy bread."

It's like, "I have a cause.

I'm trying to do something and this something is for the

masses and is for the greater good.

I just invite everyone into the room so that we can all

get to know each other.

And what better way to do that than breaking bread

at a beautiful table with people that care.