Heidi Vuong Baking at Tartine

*When I first walk into Tartine, it was packed, I didn't expect that many people there since that place was hard to find!!! I learned that it is a really popular bakery in San Francisco and that they use all natural ingredients or they try their best to use almost all natural ingredients. I learned from Eric (the baker that we shadowed) that they prepare and bake all their breads and food the day before so that it's ready to sell the day after. Eric showed us two types of yeast that they use in Tartine and they're instant dry yeast and natural wild yeast where they make by putting flour and water together and let it naturally ferment and become yeast, it smells a bit like fart when he let us smell it. The yeast is used as a starter for the bread and when the bread is all risen up from the yeast, they're ready to make the shape of the bread and let it sit for a while then baked. We got to learn how to shape a bread so that it's all ready to bake and how to flour the basket right so that the bread bake without problems. I also learn that weather poses as a problem for bakers too! Yeast goes crazy in hot weather and that makes the bread rise really fast so if they don't shape them, the bucket of dough will overflow. Another fact that i learned is that flour can make you develop an allergy if you keep breathing in the flour so wear a mask when dealing with it. One thing that I observed was that it's impossible to go home clean after working a day at the bakery, I went home with flour everywhere on my clothes!

*A skill that is required for being a baker is that you should be ready to learn something new like how to make certain kind of food and the willingness to keep practicing because perfection doesn't come naturally. A talent that you need for this job will be the passion about baking or cooking because if you're not doing a job that you love, it will be boring to you and the results won't be as good.

*My advice to youth who might be interested in baking or being in the field of culinary is to volunteer at food places and learn valuable skills and work your way from bottom up because you can't always expect to score the job you want without some kind of footing first or some kind of skill.