Interview with Don Guerra
Images as neatly-known
Award-winning baker Don Guerra discusses the lengthy scuttle to creating his Tucson-essentially based mostly firm, Barrio Bread, the art of bread making, and his level of curiosity on crew.
What impressed you to be a bread baker?
It started when I used to be true a baby. We didn’t possess diverse money, so my mom made traditional total-wheat loaves and my nana tortillas, every of which I cherished having in our dwelling. The aroma! We also repeatedly had diverse oldsters round and fed them.
My entrepreneurship grew from working with my dad. When I used to be eight years outdated, he had me shining footwear at his barbershop. I like a flash realized that I loved work in itself: repeatedly being busy and offering a carrier.
© Aaron Bugaj
The put did you study the tools of your alternate?
I labored at a bakery in Flagstaff, which gave me that familiar, comforting feeling of fresh-baked bread made in a tight atmosphere. My first night there, I acknowledged to myself, That is what I’m going to enact for the the relaxation of my existence.
I also cherish the art and science of baking and sharing something swish with my crew. So when I went to college, I majored in cultural anthropology. That, mixed with my entrepreneurship and cherish of bread, resulted in my alternate mannequin. I don’t possess a outdated college bakery—it’s more cherish a crew-essentially based mostly compare bread lab.
You had been also a trainer. How did that near about?
I opened my first bakery in 1995. By 2001, it had gotten too gigantic for me, and I wasn’t a trusty sufficient chief to rearrange it. I made up my thoughts to sell it and win my instructing credentials; I then taught public college for seven years.
When I opened Barrio Bread years later, I applied many instructing suggestions, equivalent to lesson planning, public speaking, management, and management, to the firm so I would possibly per chance per chance win potentially the most curious out of my workers. That has made such a distinction. Now I disclose bread making on breadlessons.com, preserve in-particular person lessons, and enact consulting.
At one level, you had an oven in your garage. Would you converse us about that?
I had at the origin deliberate to originate Barrio Bread as a brick-and-mortar bakery, however the financial give contrivance of 2008 averted me from doing so. I knew I would possibly per chance per chance both return to instructing or preserve a sure route, so I installed an oven in my garage and ran my bakery out of it for nearly eight years. That was one of potentially the most no longer easy times of my existence as a consequence of I used to be working in a 450-squarefoot direct whereas atmosphere up a alternate on my possess. It was lonely now and then, and I from time to time wondered if I used to be on the factual direction.
Happily, I used to be. My brick-and-mortar opened the day sooner than Thanksgiving in 2016. I supplied 450 loaves in round ninety minutes; I had been selling 900 loaves every week out of my garage. The crew was there, actually lined up and prepared to toughen me and my mission.
© Don Guerra
How crucial is the usage of wholesome substances to you?
I’m dedicated to sourcing from two native farms, BKW Farms and Hayden Flour Mills. At Barrio Bread, we exhaust outmoded, heritage, and contemporary wheats, and our breads are essentially manufactured from three substances: flour, water, and salt. There are no fillers, so that they’re low glycemic and low gluten. This suits what consumers are stressful now: they must know the put their meals comes from and what you’re doing to toughen your native economy and the atmosphere. I cherish my crew, and I cherish creating something true for them now and within the ruin.
However, here is no longer true about feeding my crew; it’s also an duty to make sure that that the total lot the farmers grow gets develop into meals. They now realize that here is every sustainable and a true funding. I’m so thankful for them and Native Seeds/SEARCH, a native organization I work with that’s helping farmers grow these outmoded varietals. It’s a round, hyperlocal mannequin that has global adoption, and it’s fun to witness folks embracing it.
That’s why I recently created Barrio Grains, which extra fosters rotund sustainability with my farmers by the usage of up all their crops. I can’t feed all individuals, but I can present flours and grains and disclose folks how to waste bread to permit them to every feed themselves and study the craft of bread making.
Would you talk about the art of bread making?
Bread truly is every an art and a science, and it’s needed to possess respect for it. I sculpt my bread to waste it witness swish, alternatively it took diverse work to study the formulation. Using heritage flours was a truly current journey: I used to be a mad scientist doing culinary experiments to ideal the typical of the pigments and flavors.
It wasn’t pretty—the bread didn’t repeatedly witness true—so I created my first stencil, the cactus. That ramped up the bread’s repute all of a sudden. The bread also obtained higher as a consequence of I discovered out how to accurately mix the flours; now it looks gigantic and tastes gigantic.
© Janelle Gleeson
What are your most well liked kinds?
We now possess thirty breads, so there’s something for all individuals. However some are more current, such because the Einkorn, which oldsters are loopy about as a consequence of it’s the bottom in gluten and potentially the most nutritious. I possess folks lining up an hour sooner than we originate to waste obvious they win that bread. We also possess fun flavors cherish Jalapeño-Cheddar, and the Cranberry-Walnut and the Heritage breads repeatedly sell speedy.
You latterly received a James Beard Award. Is that validation to your mission?
Entirely. It validates that I chose the factual direction three a protracted time ago. However I’ve calm obtained diverse work to enact; I’m no longer sitting support and resting on my laurels. I’m going to exhaust this publicity to proceed creating believers in my crew who perceive what we must enact to fortify our meals economy and maximize our culinary potentialities. It’s more or less cherish waking up the arena in my possess formulation—I desire folks to know that there are diverse picks assorted than white, wheat, and rye. I ogle that taking place when a baby asks their mum or dad for the outmoded-grain Khorasan bread as a consequence of it’s their popular.
What does your Tucson crew mean to you?
It’s the total lot. In the end, it’s the level of curiosity of the Barrio Bread mission assertion: connecting crew by bread. I went from peddling loaves out of the support of my minivan to having a garage bakery to creating a future-forward alternate for most curious one scheme— Tucsonans wanted it to thrive.
I’ve also stumbled on that after you waste the which formulation first, the money will apply. I’m seeking to manufacture efficiency in what I enact to no longer most curious pay farmers a true wage but additionally make sure that that all individuals in my crew can devour. Nothing goes within the trash; what doesn’t win eaten goes to native shelters.
In reputedly every photo of you, you’re smiling. Is that a reflection of all this?
Absolutely. It’s amusing you recount that as a consequence of my accomplice and I possess a one-yr-outdated daughter who smiles nonstop. We’re repeatedly strange about what’s occurring in her head. I mediate she sees us smiling the total time, so it’s pure for her. It’s truly decent.
In an identical vogue, my ardour, pride, and happiness are decent. This has been potentially the most curious existence experiment, entrepreneurial experiment, and gastronomy experiment I would possibly per chance per chance possess hoped for. I’m thankful for what I’ve been ready to enact, the constant challenges, and attending to enact what I cherish. It’s fun and never gets outdated, and that’s why it comes by as a smile.
For more data, fling to barriobread.com
