by Farmhouse Bread Co.
When I first began considering a career change into the culinary world, I had no idea where this roller coaster would take me, nor where I would end up. I always knew that there was something there, buried underneath, calling me into the kitchen. This calling would not be fully realized until some time after. I found an overwhelming comfort among the night owls, and kinetic-energy-feeding crews that took no prisoners day in and day out behind the swinging doors of a bustling restaurant kitchen. The chaotic atmosphere was strangely soothing, despite my crippling fear of disappointing the chef, or worse, igniting his ever-volatile temper. Terrified and fueled by an electric vibration pulsing through my body, forcing me to keep coming back, like a moth to a flame. Fast forward from my first ever kitchen experience, through culinary school, I took an externship with a prestigious restaurant, a fantastic opportunity indeed. An off-hand comment from the bread baker one day during shift would prove auspicious, planting the seed for my future, and introducing a bakery that would later become the pillar of my education into bread baking.
In my conscious attempt to avoid any culinary positions involving bread, I found myself happening upon it during a particularly slow “off-season” while working in a tourist driven town. What was intended to supplement my current winter-season wages and kitchen knowledge as a bakery assistant turned into an introduction to bread. An intuitive nod from the owner pushed me outside of my comfort zone, and into a position I had been working to avoid all along. I was sent to a family ranch, just a few miles down the road, to observe and even participate in a bread shaping and baking shift. I had my doubts, a lot of them.
I left that first night after staging (a working audition of sorts) with an excitement and inspiration I had never felt before. I just had to call and wake up my mom to share every detail from my night. It was in that moment I knew two things with certainty; I wanted more than anything to be apart of what I had just experienced, and that I was utterly terrified. I had not felt such a calling since I had first entered a restaurant kitchen. I knew I was meant for this. The further immersed, the greater my passion and perseverance grew, I devoured any knowledge I could get my hands on, and threw myself into every opportunity at my fingertips.
Starting from the bottom I worked my way up in the ranks and into management. This would provide an entirely new set of challenges that would force me to grow and expand both mentally and emotionally. It was not enough to merely be good or even great at baking. Taking on the roll of teacher and coach ultimately taught me perhaps even more than the knowledge I was passing on to employees. It was humbling. Not much time had passed since I was in their very place, seeking knowledge and a skill set from the head bakers before me. In some ways it helped me to better understand and empathize with their struggles, as they were so recent in my memory; a valuable skill I vowed to hold onto in the future.
Navigating my way through bread baking emerged as one of self-discovery and awareness, not only pertaining to skill and information, but a sense of identity and place in the world. I have never cared much for cliche casual conversations and generalizing questions, as if asking someone what they did for work somehow summed up the entirety of a being. Such characterizations felt forced, as if we were somehow vaguely satisfying a slot, checking a box. The soul, a collection of a person’s entirety could not merely be categorized in this generic way. Or so I thought, and on some levels still believe. However, I can say, without any doubt, being a Bread Baker most prominently resonates with my sense of self, purpose and even spirituality. I more strongly identify with the title of Bread Baker than any other characterization. My days, weeks and months are constantly filled with flour and water and salt. It is always on my mind, in my heart and apart of my being. I feel solace in the bakery when I am sad, and joy when I am content. Baking has proved cathartic and helped me to find resolution, conviction and purpose, in all aspects of my life, not just a means to provide. In a metaphorical sense, baking transformed, evolved, and created many of my values and beliefs, just as flour, water, & salt become loaves. My unique culinary experiences have transcended the confines of the bakery, and continue to influence all aspects of my daily life. In my quest for the knowledge, technique and process of bread baking I serendipitously unearthed a part of myself; my soul.
Kate Mooring is the owner of Farmhouse Bread Co. A Bay Area start-up, Farmhouse Bread Co. is micro bread bakery relying on all natural sourdough cultures to leaven organic hearth-style breads for the community she grew up in.