Tiburon man sweet on baking bread
‘Gluten neck’ leads Tiburon man to teach bread baking classes
Stephen Yafa wouldn’t say he was a trend-setter, but the Tiburon resident was making his own sourdough bread way before the pandemic sent people in search of sourdough starter to bake their own loaves during the lockdowns.
It all started because of his wife’s “gluten neck.”
A few years ago, his wife, Bonnie Dahan, had gone on a spa retreat based on ayurvedic medicine, where one of the practitioners gave her that heartwrenching diagnosis after she told him her neck hurt. Yafa, a bread lover, panicked — would this be the end of his bread-eating days and all-things gluten in their home?
“I got interested in writing a book toward the beginning of the anti-gluten phenomenon, which has become part of our culture. Out of that came at interest in sourdough, which I didn’t even think about until I started doing research,” says Yafa, a journalist who has written for numerous publications and is also a playwright, screenwriter and novelist. “I was advised that the microchemistry of sourdough is incredibly effective for people who have gluten issues in mitigating a lot of those issues. Natural fermentation does neutralize that for about 80% of people.”
Not for people who have celiac disease, he warns, but for those with sensitivities. Like his wife. It has helped with her stomachaches, but he’s unsure if it offered any help for “gluten neck.”
So Yafa, who was already into fermentation — he was a wine producer of pinot noir in the Russian River region for many years — decided to try his hand at sourdough bread making.
“I like getting my hands dirty, or involved in things,” says Yafa, who eventually wrote that book,
“Grain of Truth: Why Eating Wheat Can Improve Your Health,” in 2016.
After his book was published, he began teaching sourdough bread baking classes privately as well as at the College of Marin and Fairfax’s Backyard Farmer. Then the pandemic hit and at-home orders were mandated, and like so many other people, he pivoted to online Zoom classes.
His next class is at 11 a.m. April 10 and in addition to sourdough bread, he will be teaching how to make sourdough pretzels — “they’re delicious, they’re easy to make, and kids and grandkids love to make them with you. Yours will be puffy, tangy, salty and organic,” he promises in an email.
Yes, anyone can watch sourdough bread-making classes online for free on YouTube. But his classes include some science, some history, and some tips on making the most delicious, and healthy, loaves that he’s picked up over the years.
“You really want to get into doing whole grain as much as possible and get away from processed flour. You have to adapt what you know to do that. Whole grains perform in a different way than processed flours,” he says.
He understands why so many people have become enamored with making sourdough bread this past year. He makes two loaves every week to 10 days.
“It’s fun to do. You got to sort of put everything else out of your mind for the moment and really pay attention to the tactile qualities of it to tell how the gluten is doing,” he says.
And putting everything else out of one’s mind during a pandemic sounds just about right.
• To sign up for Stephen Yafa’s sourdough bread and pretzel-making online class at 11 a.m. April 10, go to marincommunityed.augusoft.net. The cost is $72.