I didn’t specifically come to this idea on purpose. I started making bread as a way to build community with others at the beginning of the pandemic and next thing you know I was baking hundreds of loaves a week and selling out of my home. I was on a foodie text thread sending pictures and recipes of food made daily to the thread and it turned from that into making sourdough bread. I tried my hands at making a few loaves. When I started I was mediocre at best and somewhere after making loaves 10-15 times I started to get the hang of it. Then I started to realize how much I enjoyed making it and how peaceful it was. About the time of the murder of George Floyd rocked the world and sent me into a tailspin. I had a really hard time dealing with it. So I spent the majority of my time being very sad and very angry so I started to take time to disappear into my basement and make bread. Focusing on bread seemed to makes me happy.

 I’m a father of 2 teenage boys, a husband, and a black artisan bread baker. I was an aspiring Chef who worked as a private chef until COVID-19 changed all of that. I started baking at home for fun and as a way to calm my mind after a traumatic incident. I start the beginning of the pandemic honing my craft. Due to my large following on IG, I started my home-based bakery. And now I’m the owner of the sourdough bakery in SF with 40 employees and a 7-day-a-week bakery. A bakery whose mission is to build community and make a difference. Rize Up is offering sourdough, cookies, and pastries. The majority of our artisan sourdough is certified organic, long-fermented, and naturally leavened sourdough. We also focused on inclusivity and representation of multi-cultural individuals. I am most proud of the collaborations with other small local businesses and communities that I have been able to bring representation to and for. I feel small businesses doing things for the right reasons and the right way. Staff and crew both trained and untrained want to be part of something and to be part of a beautiful expression of work. When I was young my single mother of 3 moved to SF. We were homeless during that time I learned about what it means to care about other people and how other people care about you. One of the things I am most proud of is our Pay it Forward Loaf we try to inspire other people to work with us to donate loaves to our local food insecure and homeless shelters to try to make a difference . Often times people don’t know how they can help or make a difference and I am very proud we’ve been inspiring people through our actions to donating a loaf to people who are on need.

I built my social media following based on sharing joy at a time were most people felt alone and caught off. I offered a different perspective focusing on a newfound love of baking and the journey I was on. Sharing my joy gives me a certain amount of expression focusing on positivity during a stressful time is my superpower, I feel like focusing less on sales and more on community and involvement works wonders for me.

From the very beginning, I was never focused on making more money or copying other people. My entire concept is to make beautiful things for the right reasons not because they are not selling well but because I feel like they need to be created.