As we all are painfully painfully aware, life has changed, and life has changed VERY QUICKLY! I don’t know of anyone who has not been impacted whether it be your job, your social network, your finances, your wellbeing, or all of it: WE HAVE ALL BEEN IMPACTED.
I don’t know about you but I am quite frankly exhausted. I think this is mostly because my emotions have seemingly run 17 triathlons these last few weeks: I feel like I run for survival just wanting to keep up, I swim in hope (sometimes fake hope, sometimes fake positivity, but hope nonetheless), and I feel like I’m biking through endless rounds of anxiety. I feel like it’s all uphill and it also feels like there is a swarm of bitchy poisonous bees chasing me so this race never ends. It’s quite fun and my adrenals just absolutely love it ;/
I will say, I feel very lucky and grateful that I’ve been able to maintain my business mostly as is. Before all this, 1/3 of my business was private cooking clients, catering, and popups that have all been suspended, but bread product sales have grown and grown over these last few weeks which also makes me wonder a million things but let’s not get into that right now. I set up Bread is Good as a “contact-less” pre-order only delivery service and I have not needed to change much as we’ve continued through this weird-ass pandemic. I set it up this way trying to find an easier and more profitable (mostly financial but also mentally profitable ) way to get GOOD BREAD to people while also developing a financial model that allows a baker to live and thrive. The current “coffee shop” model of pastry + baked goods is super hard and allows for very low profit margins… with also an incredible amount of wasted time and product which drives me nuts. It’s been a journey and I find myself and my business at a very interesting crossroads right now.
With the service industry basically shut down overnight, we have all most likely and hopefully witnessed a shift in our community’s perception of good food and the value we place on it. I have watched countless friends lose their jobs, incomes, livelihoods, routines, but also their way of life. Cooking and baking is not just a job for most of my friends in the industry, it is an all encompassing a WAY of life. It’s a passion, a creative force, a way to see in the world, a way to ACT in a world that often doesn’t accept these folks (me included) elsewhere. For some, food and the industry that surrounds it, is the only way for some to truly exist as a human in the world. The service industry is full of weirdos for sure- exhausting, perfectionist, CRAZY ASS CONTROL FREAK weirdos but it’s these weirdos that in my opinion are born with this innate sense to SERVE, to PROVIDE, to NOURISH, TO GIVE… oftentimes at a detriment to themselves. And as we see, we’ve come to a precipice of truly learning, understanding, acknowledging, and then paying for what this service not only gives but what it is truly TRULY worth.
What brings this whole conversation out for me is this very big, sudden and cool, yet very annoying rise that in popularity that Sourdough baking is incurring at the moment (PUN INTENDED) and thus, the free information and service that a lot of humans feel that they are entitled to just asking me to give right now. It is hard for me to think of another industry where free information isn’t even just requested, it is more often than not demanded. There are so many reasons for this too- blog culture, food influencers, everyone and their mother is a professional chef now, etc etc. And let me clarify, I don’t think most people intend to come across as demanding or have bad intentions, but I just want to raise the flag here that as everyone is feeling this rush to be a sourdough baker that we begin to be understand that the craft, creativity, ingenuity, and service of the cooking and baking industry deserves to maintain a livelihood through the information and service that it provides.
Multiple times a day in the last few weeks I have been asked “can you just give me your recipe?” or “can you just tell me what to do?” MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY. Um sure let me stop doing my actual work which right now which is all consuming and in a compromising situation, condense the last 10 years of my professional life that I’ve worked insanely hard at, and DM you what you should be doing right now not having any information on any of the variable that you may or may not have to be a successful baker. The trying aspect is 2 fold here : 1. the expectation that I just give you my livelihood (time, valuable information, etc) and you just assume you will be successful at it without putting in the time and energy. and 2. that it’s as simple as me emailing you a recipe card. LOLOLOL. I have been scoffed at and made to feel bad when I send people to resources that they can invest in and get the best, tested, valuable, and PROFESSIONAL information. As I’ve come to realize a lot of people don’t want to pay… they don’t want to pay in time or in money, they want it to just be given the information, they just want the free answer.
So here is what I ask: I ask you as a customer of the food industry (this includes restaurants, bakers, bartenders, pizza makers, farmers, growers, apron makers, service staff, janitors, THE LIST GOES ON) to ask yourself: What is the value (now BUT ESPECIALLY when we aren’t in a pandemic) that you put on a farmer’s seeds, on a bakers sourdough, on a small independent grocers inventory, on an independent coffee roasters beans, on a bartenders drink, on a servers simple but invested “how are you?” At the beginning of every one of my baking workshops (which are sadly now on hold indefinitely and I don’t get the internet so Idk if I’ll figure out an online format) I say 1. thank you for investing in this craft, thank you for PAYING for my knowledge and appreciating this thing that mass production has made widely available and therefore widely devalued and 2. I say if you don’t get this, if you don’t enjoy baking at the end of the day, that is fine but hopefully this teaches you how much time, energy, LOVE, PASSION, and SERVICE goes into making good food for you and INVEST in it. INVEST in your COMMUNITY’s FOOD : BUY THE SEEDS, PURCHASE THE DANG COOKBOOK, INVEST IN THE UNDERSTANDING and THE LEARNING of what goes into making that product, it’s TRUE COST, and WHO is employed in making it, and above all realize that these are people’s livelihoods and they just like everyone else deserve to make a living off the craft that they so tirelessly work at. We are also at a precipice in BIG BIG change in how our food system is going to move forward- so let’s re-examine and invest in the good food, let’s invest in the independent grocers (that don’t steal profits from independent producers), lets invest in the delivery drivers, the service providers etc that allow you to be well fed.
As I reach the end of this wordy little diatribe of mine I want to reiterate that it’s not the act of giving that perturbs me. I LOVE GIVING. I GIVE TOO MUCH SOMETIMES as do so many people in the food community. What perturbs me It’s the expectation that the food service industry is just there to give you whatever you need whenever you need it at whatever cost you deem right. And that when you are given this information, you can just do it as well as that human who is investing years and years honing in on this skill. NO. No no no. Appreciate the skill, appreciate the product, buy into it, INVEST IN IT. Finally, I also want to reiterate that this diatribe does not apply to a majority of my customers; the bread is good breadheads are quite a kind pack of investing, loyal, and grateful bread lovers. LIKE THE MOST GRATEFUL KIND HUMANS I HAVE EVER MET. LIKE Y’ALL SLAY ME IN YOUR KINDNESS. I just want to add that.
I hope this doesn’t come across as mean or browbeating although I know it will for some. I love that folks are baking for themselves, planting food, cooking for their health and wellness, but let’s all do the work! I hope that this sets in your mind the premium that we should all be paying for our good food and the SYSTEM that it encompasses: whether its in a local restaurant’s dinner or tried and true recipe you want to try at home. Invest invest invest!
In Part 2 of BREAD IS GOOD IN THE TIME OF CORONA I am going to lay out some sourdough tips, disclaimers, and the best resources I know. Stay tuned!
Cheers + Bread,
S