page_title: History of California bread
section_title: San Francisco Bay Area
hierarchical_section_title: History of California bread / Artisan bread movement / Modern-era companies / San Francisco Bay Area
context_page_description: The history of California bread as a prominent factor in the field of bread baking dates from the days of the California Gold Rush around 1849, encompassing the development of sourdough bread in San Francisco. It includes the rise of artisan bakeries in the 1980s, which strongly influenced what has been called the "Bread Revolution".
context_section_description: Acme Bread Company is an early, influential modern artisan bread maker, reported to have "launched an artisanal bread-making revolution in the 1980s" with their sourdough bread. In 1977 founder Steve Sullivan, a student at University of California, Berkeley who was earning money as a busboy at Chez Panisse, bought Elizabeth David's 1977 book on bread during a trip to Europe, and began trying to recreate the bread he had tried in Paris on his return. In 1979 he became in-house bread maker at Chez Panisse, when the Cheese Board Collective could not keep up with demand. Jeremiah Tower, then head chef, encouraged Sullivan to study breadmaking at Narsai David's bakery. He later left to launch Acme with his wife Susan, half funded by Doobie Brothers guitarist Patrick Simmons. Encouraged by advice from a winery in Bandol, they obtained Acme's starter culture from yeast of wine grapes they found at Sullivan's father's vineyard in Napa.
  Semifreddi's Bakery is an Alameda-based artisan bakery that serves the entire San Francisco Bay Area. In 1984, Eric and Carol Sartenaer, ex-Cheese Board Collective members, opened shop in a 450-square-foot “hole in the wall” bakery in Kensington, California. In January 1987, Barbara Frainier (one of their first employees) took over the business with her husband Michael Rose. In 1988, Tom Frainier (Barbara's brother) joined the Semifreddi's team. Tom, who holds an MBA from Berkeley's Haas School of Business, left an upper management position at Clorox to join his sister and brother-in-law, both UC Berkeley alumni, in the bread and pastry-making business. When asked about his exit strategy, Frainier replies, “death.” After Frainier took the helm as President, CEO, and self-proclaimed, “Chief Boot Licker,” Semifreddi's rapidly expanded throughout the San Francisco Bay, while maintaining its emphasis on baking high-quality, European-style artisan bread and pastries.
  Many other artisan bakers have followed in the steps of Tassajara, Cheese Board, Narsai's, Acme, and Semifreddi's, often started by veterans of other local bakeries and of Chez Panisse. In 1989 former Chez Panisse pastry chef Diane 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. In 2013, the BBC described Mission-based bakery Tartine as making "some of the city’s best sourdough".
  All told, in the early 2000s there were at least 65 "microbakeries" in the Bay Area, including 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, refrigera
caption: Acme bread loaves on display at Ferry Building retail shop in San Francisco
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