Jordan Vogel of the Chico Bread Guild and Tin Roof Bakery and Café sat down with The Orion to talk all things bread, Chico Bread Festival and baking puns.

What exactly is the Bread Guild, and how did it come to be?

The Chico Bread Guild is a group of talented bakers that came together to educate our community on where to find your local independent bakers and all the great varieties of healthy nutritious bread they offer.

The group was formed one day at the Saturday (Chico Certified Farmers Market) when us bakers talked about forming a group to talk about bread and all its challenges. From there we came up with a purpose and that is to promote the discovery of Chico’s Independent Bakers. We thought no better way to do this than to throw a bread event to get the word out.

What is your role in the Bread Guild? Who else is in it?

I represent Tin Roof Bakery. In the Guild we don’t really have defined roles yet. We are still in the early stages of this group. Right now, we are working collectively to get our first event off and running. I have been baking bread for seven years but between the six members of the bread guild – Dave Miller of Millers Bake House, Larry Jansen of Hearth and Stone, Kala Riddle of Bread by Kala, Tatton White of Bread Itself and Jesse Simpson of Chico Unified School District Bakery – we have over 100 years of baking experience. There will be a lot of bread expertise at our event.

What got you into the bread business, did you kneed a job? Ha ha just kidding. But, seriously.

I grew up around food my whole life. My dad is a chef, so I was bound from a young age to end up in the food industry and yes at the time I kneaded a job. Like most bakers, when you start making bread you become fascinated by the transformation of simple ingredients into delicious bread and need to know the reasons why. Bread is an ever-changing craft, like beer, that has endless possibilities and results and always keeps you wanting to learn more.

Is this an exclusive group? Can outside people apply/ join the guild?

Right now the Guild is exclusive to professional independent bakers. But as we grow that could change. We do encourage home bakers to join our Facebook, and we would be happy to answer any questions they have. We will also be looking to do small classes bi-monthly after the event.

I know you said that there is going to be an event April 23 at Tin Roof Cafè and Bakery. Could you give some details about what someone can expect to do at a Bread Festival?

The Chico Bread Festival is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 16 in the Tin Roof parking lot. We will have local vendors that pair well with bread. All the local bread bakers will be sampling and selling their loaves. There will be a little live music as well.

In the back of the bakery, we will have hands-on workshops, educations and a Q&A with master bakers. We encourage home bakers to bring a loaf of bread that they love to bake at home and ask questions about it.

To participate in the workshops, we ask for a small donation that will benefit the Esplanade House.

What do you see the guild becoming?

Of course we hope to grow, but we hope the guild is there to act as a resource for community members that have the same love of bread as we do. We hope to throw this event once a year and to do classes and education (workshops) and to keep the community involved with bread.

If you could rate all the bread puns you’ve heard/read while at work, where did mine rate?

Yours was good, but there are lots of funny bread puns out there. A few of my favorites are: One more bread joke and you’re toast; Check out my new loafers; and I got flour in my rye. We joke that it’s just bread not a loaf or death situation. I know they’re bad, but that’s what puns are supposed to be.

The Guild is made up of local bread makers that all have their own style and takes on recipes for different types of bread. You can find their bread at all of the different farmer’s markets that happen throughout the week. You can also find locally baked bread at these local businesses:

S&S Produce, 1924 Mangrove Ave., Chico

New Earth Market, 864 East Ave., Chico

Chico Natural Foods Co-Op, 818 Main St., Chico

Tin Roof Bakery and Café, 627 Broadway Ste 170, Chico

Cia-betta be there!

Jordan Rodrigues can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_arts on Twitter.