We recently connected with Matias Barang and have shared our conversation below.

Matias, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

My name is Matias, but my family calls me Häsi (pronounced “hay-zee”). I’m half Austrian, half Afghan and born and raised in LA. Häsi is a made up German word that my brother invented as a baby– it stuck ever since!

The slogan “Art is in Bread” came to me in a desert vision during a trip to Palm Springs with my two best friends. I pitched my business idea to them and realized I wanted to find a slogan that spoke true to my product and story. The Palm Springs climate, funny tasting mushrooms and good company were the perfect combination for the task. The details get blurry, but the words were written in the stars as clear as the night sky (at least that’s how I remember it). It felt just right. The phrase “Art is in Bread” alludes to both the visual aesthetic of our breads as well as the art of bread baking itself.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I first got into cooking in 2013, when I took a leave of absence from university to attend Le Corden Bleu culinary school. It was a short stint (I did end up returning to university to complete my education), but my passion for great food continued. For me, dough was the most intriguing and challenging culinary art to master. To kick off the journey, I enrolled in a brief course with AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana) where I learned how to make certified Napoli style pizza. The key was in the dough, the ingredients and the technique, and I only wanted to learn more.

My sister in law and her family operated a bakery in the Austrian village of Puchberg am Schneeberg for over 150 years called Da Sticklerbäck. In 2017, they offered to show me how they make sourdough bread in Austria–caring for a sourdough starter, shaping, baking….that’s where the inspiration to create Häsi Bread started.

I came back to LA and baked as much as I could– I gave away countless loaves. I learned by trial, error, and periodical check-ins with the Sticklers in Austria. Then, in 2018 I started the business, part time at least.
I still had a full time job and was baking on the weekends, experimenting with turmeric, butterfly pea flower, charcoal, matcha…all the natural colors. The butterfly pea flower and turmeric stuck with me, both for their visual allure and health properties.

I started selling to coworkers, neighbors and friends, then to a local farmers market, then to multiple, then to local stores & cafe’s, then Erewhon market and other health food stores, and finally to online grocers like MisFits Market. I’m proud to say each step was brought on organically. Slow and steady.

The blue and yellow swirl is core to Häsi. It reminds me of the journey, the mission, and the uniqueness of our bakery. The journey as being full of challenges, sacrifice and perseverance. The mission to create a truly exceptional product, where passion drives the next best item. The uniqueness of our flavor, look, and feel.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Häsi Bread started as a backyard project–baking bread out of a wood fired oven I built with my brother in my parent’s backyard. All of our growth since then has happened organically and without outside capital. For the first 3 years in business, I worked full time as an executive assistant at an advertising agency in LA and spent my savings and off time building the bakery. I didn’t pay myself a dime from bakery sales–it all went straight back into the business to invest in equipment, employees and infrastructure. Now, having taken the bakery full time, I pay myself a modest salary to pay the bills, and continue to re-invest everything else. This is how we’ve grown to where we are now and how I plan to grow moving forward. Scaling in this way ensures we’re growing WITH our customer base, listening to each other, and not biting off more than we can chew.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Word of mouth has always been the most effective way to grow our customer base. When you cut into the loaf, see the colors, try the bread–it’s worth talking about. It’s such an experience and I love to see how excited people get at it. When folks share it on Instagram and tag us, it lets me know we’re doing something right. It’s all about the passion for the craft and breaking bread with new people. I’ve given away countless loaves of bread for this reason–I just want people to try it. If I could create and give it all away for free, I absolutely would. I think that’s something you can feel and people pick up on that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hasibread.com
• Instagram: hasibread