Reza’s Bread
Community Rising
by Holly Madrigal
Reza Ghannadan goes to Petaluma every Monday to pick up 500 pounds of organic bread flour, which he needs for the week's baking. Reza praises the flour he can get from his favorite miller, Central Milling. “Their methods are so consistent after all these years of milling. They have been in business since 1867!” Reza smiles as he bustles about his small state-of-the-art breadery, created from a former garage in a quiet Willits neighborhood, stating, “I’m bringing about 150 loaves to market tomorrow.”
Reza’s earlier career was in the medical industry, maintaining the electrical devices that dispense medications for hospitals, but he baked as a hobby for decades. While working at Adventist Health Howard Memorial Hospital for the 10 years of his final professional position, he would bake bread on the side and bring it to the doctors and nurses. Reza became fast friends with Dr. Bowen, famed orthopedic surgeon. They worked side by side over the years, and Dr. Bowen would often tell him, “You know, Reza, you could be selling this bread. It’s delicious.” Reza also delivered bread to his friends twice a week. But then the pandemic changed everything. “I went from working elbow to elbow with my colleagues and friends to a complete shutdown.” When he could no longer serve in the way he used to, Reza decided to begin baking professionally in 2020.
Reza and his wife, Debbie, live in a beautiful home in Willits. When asked how they met, Debbie laughs gently. “Reza’s other life was as a programmer and field technician. I made a service call, and this man showed up within minutes! It turned out he had already been in the parking lot for another purpose.” The two bonded over their shared love of hot sauce when Debbie noticed Reza's hot sauce holster, and the two were smitten with each other from that moment forward.
Their custom-built home, where they have lived since 2017, is made for entertaining, with a wrap-around porch and a sunny patio where they had a brick pizza oven installed. Before they found this oasis, they lived for a short time at the Willits Senior Center Apartments. They got to know a lot of people there, and they learned that when there was a power outage, the seniors in the housing community suffered. Those who relied upon supplemental oxygen or other medical measures that require electricity were being sent to the hospital. So the Ghannadans decided to host a fundraiser pizza party to help the Senior Center purchase a generator. Along with Adventist Health Howard Memorial Hospital and the Willits community, they helped to raise over $43k. Now the senior community has alternative power for their residents.
This began a legacy of baking for charitable organizations that are close to the Ghannadans’ hearts. Reza has joined the board of directors for the Senior Center. They also support Our Daily Bread, the Caring Kitchen, Veteran’s Hall in Ukiah, and many other organizations. “You see tangible results to this kind of giving, and it really makes me happy. It is really rewarding,” says Reza.
At the start of Reza’s professional baking career, the pandemic was still new, so they built an honor system bread stand in front of their house. “At first, we would take the donations and gift them back to the organizations we care about, but then it evolved into a business,” says Debbie. They became profitable within the first nine months.
Reza’s baking efforts quickly outgrew his small kitchen. At that time, Reza was using his home oven to turn out loaves of sourdough, which he could only do one at a time. The baking process took more than eight hours. It was unsustainable, so they transformed their garage into a bakery. Now he bakes 600 loaves a week with the help of Jessica Cichowski, who preps for him so that he can bake in the early hours for market. A culinary school graduate, she comes in three days a week. “I could not do this without her,” Reza explains. “We have the same work ethic. Jessica is intuitive and a very fast learner. I find myself texting her photos of the loaves that she helped create. They are so beautiful!”
Reza is entirely self-taught. His shelves are filled with books about baking. Iranian by birth, his ancestors were confectioners. His last name—Ghannadan—means confectioner in Farsi. Reza believes that, “Food is something that becomes part of the eater’s body. It is a sacred exchange.” Reza’s voice takes on a reverent quality when he speaks of his key ingredient. “My sourdough starter is 32 years old. The sourdough is my baby. Her name is Ava. [Interesting side note: there is a library of registered sourdoughs—Puratos in Belgium—and Reza’s sourdough is registered as number 43.] When the sourdough is ready to mix, she lets me know. She is my boss … My classic sourdough is water, salt and flour, and sourdough starter. No additional yeast is used.”
Reza elaborates, “We have created 30 different varieties of sourdough, all organic and with the best ingredients.” He started with traditional sourdough rounds, then branched out into Seedalicious—to this day, the most popular. Debbie lists all the heavenly sounding flavors: cinnamon walnut raisin, whole wheat, Rumi (saffron, cardamom, and rosewater), and holiday special breads. ”We make a Persian naan … Because it is flat, you need to eat it that day—ideally, snacking on the way home from the market,” Reza jokes. “I make a glaze of flour and water and brush the naan with that, and it helps preserve it. I top it with nigella and sesame seeds. It’s hard to stop eating because it is so delicious.” They also make multiple kinds of focaccia, such as gorgonzola and caramelized onion, tomato garlic rosemary, and garlic parmesan, and they sell frozen pizza dough.
People are not the only ones who love sourdough. Reza explains, “One day, I put six buckets of sourdough starter outside because we were making rye, and it was hot, and I wanted to slow it down as it was cooler outside.” He left it there, only to return and find all six buckets gone. A bear had passed by and ate the entire lot. “That almost brought me to my knees. It was so much of our starter. We still had the mother, but it took a while to re-ferment some. They ate it all. It was horrible,” says Reza. ”The deer have stolen our Persian naan!” adds Debbie. “We never leave the door open these days.”
The timing window for baking is very narrow. Jessica starts on Thursday for the Saturday market. Mixing takes about forty five minutes, then the dough rises in tubs. She stretches and folds the risen dough four times, then she leaves those tubs for about five hours. Reza scales them, cutting to size, weighing out portions, and pre-shaping the loaves. He takes those and creates the final shape, then he puts them in bannetons (wicker baskets) and places those in the fridge for about eighteen hours. Reza explains, “That is the time that the starter does its magic. It develops a slow, steady flavor, breaking down the starch and creating a natural sugar. That natural sugar caramelizes and makes that gorgeous, glossy sheen. The tang and sweetness develop. When I do a rye, I leave it for thirty hours because I want that real tanginess.”
“I also like to introduce people to interesting and exotic grains and flours like Khorasan.” According to Reza, Khorasan was originally cultivated 9000 years ago in Iran. Trademarked as kamut, the berries are 3x the size of a regular wheat berry and the color of golden turmeric. Reza uses that grain and shares the history with as many people as he can. “That bread is, in my opinion, what bread should taste like.” He likes those ancient grains. He also works with spelt, which has a very fragile gluten structure, so it’s sometimes better tolerated for people who have a gluten sensitivity.
The couple tried selling their breads in restaurants and markets, but they found they enjoyed the one-on-one connection of the farmers market. They now attend the Windsor, Willits, Fort Bragg, Ukiah, and south coast markets. Reza says, “I learn things at every market. I let the customers tell me what they want, what flavors they are interested in. I have been baking for 30 years and I still learn things every day.”
“Willits has been so welcoming,” Debbie adds, “We are good friends with our neighbors. Reza's former colleagues at the hospital are still my best customers. In community, you get what you give. The director of the Senior Center drove all the way to San Francisco to pick up our current oven." Bolstered by their reciprocated love of community, the duo provides nourishing loaves to their dedicated customers and friends. And on weekends, they host fundraising events for the non-profits they want to support. “As long as there is a need, I will keep baking. Baking is my passion,” declares Reza.
Word of Reza's bread made its way to Food Network's Guy Fieri, who has stopped by the Windsor Farmers Market twice to meet Reza. Guy's co-executive producer for Guys Grocery Games has now scheduled Reza's Breadery to be included on a future episode. Filming begins in August to be televised soon after. While it will be fun to see our local breadmaker on television, it can't compare to delicious gratification that comes from enjoying one of his fresh loaves in all its glory.
Reza's Breadery
Rezasbreadery.com
Available at Fort Bragg, Willits, and Ukiah farmers markets.
Holly Madrigal is a Mendocino County maven who loves to share the delights of our region. She’s fortunate to enjoy her meaningful work as the director of the Leadership Mendocino program and takes great joy in publishing this magazine.
Photos by Holly Madrigal