About DAYBAKER
DAYBAKER is a return to source - to the meditative practice of working with my hands daily to realize an imagined vision: the path from kernel of idea to a thing. By making and writing, whether it’s a loaf of bread, a meal built on toast, a memory, person, or place that altered my course along the way, we will go deep..Drawing inspiration from old and new, people and places, travels and relationships - the stories we write and tell here visually will bring you along in the process.
To be sure, there will be ample recipes here- mostly new directions I’m working on now. But also my favorites from over the years which inform all that follows- working through decades of learning, trials and errors to bring many of these classics up to the now. Here I endeavor to convey much more context in the origin stories of these recipes and the extraordinary characters who inspired pivotal shifts along the way bringing rich history of these collaborations to you.
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About bit about me:
After years of intense formative prep school, and then being waitlisted to my university of choice - my impatient 18 year old self decided that I needed to learn to cook professionally. The grand vision was that it might enable me to travel and find gainful work anywhere in the world. As simple the premise, so far it’s a vision, in the midst - mostly realized. Growing up in West Texas had its peaks and valleys and will always be home in many ways. But for all the wide open space, my mind often drifted with the tumbleweeds passing through on their journey. One thing I felt strongly from a young age: there were lots of people and places I needed to meet and see; and to learn from. I headed east to learn to cook, double majoring in culinary arts and baking and pastry at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. My first taste of long fermented sourdough bread came during a visit to nearby Berkshire Mountain Bakery in Housatonic MA during a weekend outing with fellow culinary school classmates. That taste sparked an obsession that would alter and chart my course for the next 30 years.
The following five years were spent apprenticing for 4 different mentors starting in Housatonic with Richard Bourdon. Then to Chico Ca to work with Dave Miller a pioneer in the fresh milling and biodynamic (at the time) whole grain sourdough bread movement in the early 1990s. California would be home again, but after two more apprenticeships in France: one in the Alps with Bourdon’s mentor Patrick LePort, and the other in South of France with Patrick’s dear friend Daniel Collin.
After running out of money while living abroad, an annoyingly recurring theme over the years, I moved back to California first co-founding with my former partner Liz Prueitt our small wood fired village bakery in Point Reyes Station selling at Farmers Markets around the Bay Area, We eventually jumped into the city after the (first) dot com bubble burst made it possible and co-founded Tartine Bakery together in 2002 in San Francisco.
I co-authored both the Tartine bakery book published in 2006 as well as Tartine Revisited published in 2018. In between, came Tartine Bread, followed with Tartine Book No. 3 which I also photographed. In the mix, we opened Bar Tartine around the corner which operated for 10 years as a collaborative effort with several different chefs who defined an era of dining as a creative hub launching some of the first pop ups on the west coast while incubating ideas of many talented chefs and bakers. I photographed and produced the book Bar Tartine on the home stretch (together with co chefs / authors Nick Balla and Cortney Burns who won the JBF award that year ‘cooking from a professional point of view’) finally closing the restaurant to focus on the ambitious Tartine Manufactory project and expansion into Los Angeles and Seoul South Korea. The first 4 books were each JBF award nominated in their respective national categories and subsequently published in several different languages building connections with baking and cooking communities around the world.
Tartine now operates all day cafes in both San Francisco and Los Angeles neighborhoods along with a baking commissary in each city; plus cafes and commissaries in Seoul, South Korea. In addition, Chad co founded Coffee Manufactory known early-on for it’s direct sourcing green coffee partnerships mirroring Tartine’s end to end grain supply chain built over several years working with farmers on the West Coast and Cairnsprings and Camas Mills producing our fresh milled high extraction and whole grain flours.
My partner since 2019, Liz Barclay and I collaborated together most recently on BREAD BOOK named by Ed Behr (creator of OG food journal The Art of Eating) as one of the top cookbooks of the year published in 2022. We continue to bring that synergy into new endeavors today & beyond.
Now, my partner Liz Barclay and I are back on the West Coast after a year spent working and learning with people around the world. I’m excited to finally plant some roots and settle into a disciplined routine exploring ideas touched upon along the way. My small test kitchen is ready to fire up shortly and I look forward to welcoming you all into this journey. We will be sure to make time for flat whites, afternoon surfs, exploring up and down the coast and beyond.
