Meet Shane Edelman, Los Angeles creative and traditional bread baker on a mission to “bring bread back.” How? Shane aims to clean up bread’s bad rap one stone-milled, fermented loaf at a time.

When Shane’s not baking and hand-delivering his naturally leavened, fermented loaves made from freshly milled in-house grains, he’s schooling people on all things bread. His findings? When people eat his homemade bread made from slow-fermented, organic, stone-milled grains they don’t experience the same digestive intolerances as they do from store-bought bread. During his private in-home bread making classes, he dives deep into the science behind why bread in its traditional state may be able  to be enjoyed without the nuisance of internal flare-ups.

Shane’s philosophy is simple: Eat whole foods and whenever possible get it from farmers and your community. We love soaking up kitchen inspo, especially when it’s the kind of old school, pure and simple living you’ll find here…

What I Do: Creative director, bread baker, dad, owner of chickens—not necessarily in that order.

I Can’t Start My Morning Without: A large glass of room temperature water.

Breakfast Is Normally: Oatmeal or chia pudding.

In My Kitchen You’ll Find Plenty Of: Handmade ceramic bowls.

Best Food Memory: This question is impossible! It’s like, What’s your favorite movie? (Ok, “Annie Hall”). But how can I choose? So many. How about let’s just start with my last meal: Perfectly roast chicken, butter lettuce salad with tarragon, and good bread with butter and sel gris.

Food Philosophy: Try making it yourself, and if you buy it, buy it from a farmer.

Essential Cookbooks: Japanese Cooking by Sonomo Sakai, Sunday Suppers at Luques by Suzanne Goin, Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey.

Favorite Ingredient Lately: Beans.

Ideal Pairings For Sourdough: A jammy egg, dunked in soup, vegetable sammy, but mostly with a good butter (I love Myoko’s vegan butter).

Favorite Bread That Goes With Everything: Sonora country loaf.

Healthiest Daily Habit: Meditation.

Currently I’m Most Obsessed With: Japanese country cooking.

Listening To When I Bake: Mocky’s album, “Key Change” or my guy, Neil Young.

Always Thinking About Lunch At: Langer’s Delicatessen.

Current Mantra: This is me. Dance.

Current Homemade Bread Obsession (And How To Make It!): My longtime love affair with Jewish Rye. Go here for the recipe and substitute rye flour (Landrace rye from Tehachapi Grain Project) and add caraway seeds.

What Excites You Most About Fermentation: It is the pure act of creation. Something is created out of nothing. You have flour and water and you have nothing. You have flour, water, the bacteria in the air, and time—you have bread.

The Biggest Misconception About Gluten: It’s not the gluten that has our bellies aching. It’s the current state of most flour, how it’s milled and the bread baking process in general. Even if it’s organic wholewheat flour you’re buying in Whole Foods, it’s probably crap. I could go on and on and on…

This Matters To You Because: I have kids, and I don’t want them to be avoiding a beautiful thing like bread when they get older. They are a hell of a lot smarter than my generation was, and the future of regenerative farming and a lifestyle that sustains them, as well as the planet, is in their hands.

Compelling Facts For Those Who Might Not Be Sold: 87% of people who think they are gluten-intolerant are not. Only 6% of people in the entire United States are actually gluten-intolerant.

How Can We Better Support Gut Health By Eating Fermented Bread? Only, and I mean only eat bread from bakers who use stone-milled grain from local farmers, slow-fermented and organic. Baking bread is a hell of a lot easier than you think. Gather a group of friends, reach out to me and I would gladly come to your home and teach you how to make the best damn bread you’ve ever eaten.

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