Labriola traveled throughout the United States learning by doing. He studied at the National Baking Center in Minneapolis, San Francisco Baking Institute and the CIA in the Napa Valley, and started to develop a passion for European-style breads and rolls known as artisan breads. And the hallmark of a good artisan bread is that it isn't perfect. Anything beyond that might signal that a mix with additives was used. Labriola uses no mixes, preservatives or mold inhibitors.
Artisan breads are simple.
All good artisan breads start with a three-part sourdough process. A culture is started and fed, the resulting levain is used to ferment the bread dough, and a little of the culture is always reserved and fed with more flour and water to keep it alive for the next batch. After mixing with the sourdough levain, Labriola's bread receives two to six hours of floor time and then bakers hand shape the products. This allows for a long, slow rise which is necessary to produce the open crumb and to develop the flavor. Labriola's first artisan bread customer was Spago Restaurant in Chicago.