Thinking back on the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s not exactly easy to find a silver lining. Unless you happen to be into bread.
In 2020, Jyan Isaac, a member of the bread team at artisanal bakery Gjusta, lost his job along with so many other restaurant workers around the world. Feeling adrift, 19-year-old Jyan began baking sourdough loaves out of his family’s kitchen, selling them to neighbors. The response was extraordinary. Soon Jyan was baking 250 sourdough loaves a week out of a shuttered pizza joint in Santa Monica, hand delivering them to his Instagram devotees. An LA Times Food Section feature followed, and by the beginning of 2022, Jyan was baking 5000 loaves and bagels a week to fulfill demand. Jyan Isaac Bread was named in Food & Wine magazine’s January 2022 feature The Best Bread in Every State as one of the top 5 bread bakeries in California.
Jyan is among a wave of bread bakers influenced and inspired by Chad Robertson, who, in 2002, opened Tartine Bakery in San Francisco and almost single-handedly redirected bread-baking to its fundamental roots. Jyan has followed in Chad's footsteps, practicing the culinary idealism and rigor necessary to advance this ancient tradition. His bread is available at his bakery on 16th and Ocean Park in Santa Monica, as well as at farmers markets and restaurants throughout the city.