How a Massive Bread Factory Produces 150,000 Loaves per Week — Vendors

Nels Leader is the CEO of Bread Alone, an upstate New York bakery founded by his father. Today, the bakery is committed to the idea that everyone should have access to good bread — a goal it tries to achieve by baking 150,000 loaves every week.

Credits:
Producer: Carla Francescutti
Directors: Carla Francescutti, Murilo Ferreira
Camera: Murilo Ferreira, Carla Francescutti
Production Coordinator: Nick Mazzocchi
Editor: Josh Dion

Executive Producer: Stephen Pelletteri
Supervising Producer, Operations: Stefania Orrù
Supervising Producer, Development: Gabriella Lewis
Audience Engagement: Avery Dalal
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[Knitspin]

I love the episodes of these shows when the producers of the episode and owner(s) of the restaurants and bakeries actually allow the people who are doing the bulk of the work to speak. Sure, the owner my own, in this case, the bakery, but the person I actually want to hear from is the person who is hands on day to day and isn't always in the limelight. Thank you for allowing for that balance.

[briansmithe]

Small world this internet! Circa 1982-83 my partner and I were running a small commercial painting company and got a job painting the first house of your father, Dan, who was leaving a position as Head Chef in a Nyack restaurant to open a bakery specializing in bread. We also painted the first building that housed the first wood-fired oven he had fabricated, ate a piece of the first loaf out of that oven and later (at the bequest of his customers) he purchased the first used bread slicing machine. Took the four of us a bit to figure out how to put it together, but when we finally had it working all sampled from the first loaf from it. French Peasant bread was all that was baked in those days and all loaves were made by by hand by Dan and his wife. He talked about one day looking to sell into New York City and when the opportunity came he'd drive a small van, filled with loaves, himself to his NYC customers - one day a week. It amazes me these days 40+ years later when I pass by the now sprawling facility that has replaced that simple one room building how far he took his dream. Dan didn't have much capital in those days so when we repainted the bakery a year or two later he could only pay us half and in the ensuing years my partner and I had an open tab for bread whenever we stopped by. Simpler, better times these were.

[justinmadair]

Ha! I used to teach English at Heuft! It's in the Vulkaneifel and has been an oven manufacturer for a looong time. As a matter of fact, there is another Heuft oven-maker in the same area who is not connected to them, and uses the pumice from the area as it was once a very active volcano chain. I loved working with them. Very nice people. How cool to see this here!

[IxSuckxAtxXboxx]

Great mission of providing great bread to as many people as possible. Wish I could try some

[alexis]

It's basically semi industrial high quality/artisanal bread. Looks good.

[michaelvo]

Kind of interesting that they use La Milanaise, a flour from Quebec, Canada! It's funny because I always order Bob's Red Mill flour from the USA when I'm baking in Canada.

[PepeFamBam]

Shout out to all the bakers waking up early hours of the morning

[CerealKiller]

Sourdough is my absolute favorite bread in the world. 🍞🔥

[Luna...]

Beautiful bread with great ingredients, made with care on an industrial scale. Wow, I never thought those attributes could ever coexist. I _Love_ good bread & don't mind paying more. If I couldn't find it at an artisan independent baker, I'd definitely buy this. I don't think they distribute to Canada, unfortunately.

[habaristra]

This channel does amazing work. I was bowled over to see this video. When I was a kid in the 1950's every neighborhood in NYC had a family owned bakery. There were German, Italian, Hungarian, Lebanese, Spanish, Polish, French . . . . bakeries. Even commercial bakeries, like Entenmann's in Bay Shore Long Island, and Friehoffer's in Ulster County produced High Quality baked goods made available to supermarkets. (Now they're owned by BIG CORPORATION and have totally gone down hill)

When all these family bakeries began to disappear Bread Alone took the community bakery to the next level. Pain Quotidien, the same. They created a bakery where people could sit, share a table, hang out, read the newspaper. And of course, the quality was phenomenal. Fort those travelling to or passing by Woodstock, N.Y. Bread Alone deems a mandatory visit.

[georgekibblin]

The only bread I eat is from BREAD ALONE! My favorite for making toast in the morning with my coffee is the San Francisco Sourdough.

[Jtlvusa]

Amazing French brick oven 🤯 I wish I had that

[angeliner]

Should you ever visit Austria, go to Salzburg and buy a loave of bread from the bakery next to St. Peters church. It has been going for hundreds of years!

[leszekkot]

nothing like a fresh warm bread. i used to also eat the inside, but then sometimes the crispy crust. always went for the end cut.

[michasosnowski]

I am impressed by the quality and attention to details. I follow some artisan sourdough bakery on youtube and I do my own sourdough bread at home. Its amazing that you can do great bread at scale. I really congratulate you and wish you further success. You are very conscious person.

[spandex]

Too funny, he talks like they give it away and it’s actually too expensive for many people to purchase. What silliness

[timbushnell]

Daniel Leaders books still rank among my favourites in my library of baking manuals 😊

[Lookingforwine]

A great job, both on the part of the bakers and Eater.

[jaykia]

This is artistry and passion rolled up in one video.

[Joe-nbfs]

Big props to this team for doing everything for real, though, for me, that crumb looks tight.