Check Out Randall Michael Tobin’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Randall Michael Tobin.

How did an award-winning composer/songwriter/producer/engineer/recording studio owner become an artisan baker/chef?
It was late November 2016 and I had a thought: “I wonder if I could make sourdough bread? If it turns out good enough, maybe I could give it as gifts for the holidays…” (I prefer to create artistic things to give as gifts, rather than buying stuff.)

I love food and creating healthy meals, but I’d never made real bread before. So I ordered a packet of organic San Francisco sourdough starter from a website and proceeded to bring it to life over the course of a week. When I made the recipe for the bread that came with the starter, the result looked like a big, flat, gray UFO! I tried it again and got the same result.

So I searched online for photos of sourdough bread, came across one that looked like what I had envisioned, and clicked on it. Turns out, it was the cover of a book on how to make artisan sourdough by a successful San Francisco baker. The result from that recipe was excellent and I made four loaves to give as gifts (my wife wrapped them up into four uniquely special presentations).

The response to these bread gifts was amazing with recipients uniformly exclaiming: “This is the best bread I’ve ever had!” That warmed my heart so much that I continued to make and give the bread away throughout the year, oft times with a cutting board and tea towel presentation, and sometimes just randomly showing up and ringing the recipient’s doorbell. In the past 4+ years, I’ve given away over 800 loaves of what has now become famously known as Breadness!

In September 2017, an artist friend (and a big fan of Breadness), Dave, had a heart attack. Fortunately, he was saved by the great staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. During Dave’s recovery, he researched solutions to healing his body naturally and found the book “The Plant Paradox” by Dr. Steven Gundry. Dave told me about it and, me being a student of health and wellness, bought the book right away. Upon reading it, I was bummed by the prospect of having to give up making my artisan sourdough bread (and sourdough pizza) because most grains, especially wheat, contained lectins (toxic plant proteins designed to protect the plant, its seeds and sprouts), and gluten, which creates its own set of problems for the human body. “The Plant Paradox” is all about eliminating lectins and other toxic foods from one’s diet. But I read on and when I got to pages 50 and 51, Dr. Gundry describes bread, specifically how most bread sold in the US is not bio-friendly and gives all the reasons why. He then describes the sourdough breads made in Europe, their ingredients, the natural starter culture, the length of time it takes to make the bread (3 days is typical), and in doing so, states that this kind of bread is okay to eat (in moderation, of course). Needless to say, when I read this and realized that his description perfectly matched how I was making my bread, I was ecstatic! I didn’t have to stop making Breadness and could continue on the journey, wherever it led me.

When Dave had recovered enough that he could have guests over, I brought my “mobile pizza-making supplies” to his home and made a multi-sourdough pizza dinner for four. Dave took one bite of my Pizza Margherita and declared, “Dude, you gotta open a restaurant!” And that’s what got me going on this path.

I developed the concept of Random Acts of Breadness shortly after that. At the time, I was thinking of opening a restaurant, “Ground Zero Gourmet” (see GroundZeroGourmet.com for tempting photos), centered around food that was “Plant Paradox-friendly.” There’s a Yes and No list of foods in the book; I had developed dishes from around the world replacing “No” ingredients with “Yes” ones. The results were fantastic and people who were my “beta tasters” reported on not only how much they enjoyed the flavors but how good they felt after eating the meals.

The concept was then streamlined from a large menu, including Artisan Sourdough Pizza, various soups, stews and salads, and even sugar-free desserts, down to a “longevity café” with a stockpot of the day and salad, to go with sourdough bread. So the working concept at that point was Random Acts of Breadness – artisan sourdough bakery, longevity café, legendary bread gifts.

I was on my way toward the next phase of this development when covid changed everything. Restaurants were closing down. My bread flours were unavailable and I barely had enough flour frozen to keep my starter alive and make four loaves a week. But when flour became available again, I was able to get back on schedule.

In February of this year, I got a call from a friend who was the insurance agent for the gal who owned Quenelle Ice Cream on Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank. He told me that she was closing the business and that I should take a look at her place as it might work for my Breadness bakery idea. The fact that it was two miles from my house made it even more attractive! I looked at the place—a long shoebox layout—took measurements and made a scale floor plan. Then I did the research to see if I could get all the pieces to fit for bread pickup/takeout and bread gifts. The café idea would not work in this space, but that ultimately turned out to be a positive: we could open sooner and have less red tape to go through if we just took over the existing business (which was also a pie and cookie shop), and switch to making bread. I spent from March to June putting it together and we had a neighborhood Sneak Preview at the end of June in which we sold all but three loaves of the 48 loaves we baked over two days.

Creating this bakery was not without its challenges, however. Fortunately, I documented them in my Breadness Blog which became an engaging episodic series that you can binge-read here:

https://breadness.com/breadness-begins-from-concept-to-concrete/

For the Grand Opening on August 6th/7th, we baked 96 traditional Country loaves over two days, plus I had made 36 loaves of our Cinnamon Raisin Maple Walnut sourdough, which I froze after proper curing. We sold out the Country loaves in 2 hours on Friday and 1-1/2 hours on Saturday! We sold much of the Cinnamon Raisin Maple Walnut loaves as well. We were truly blessed by this response and knew we were part of something special.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Just like music, making artisan sourdough bread is an art and a craft. It’s not just a recipe where things get measured and mixed. There is so much to learn about the process including what the various stages of starter and dough development should smell like, feel like, look like. Sourdough is a living thing, affected by temperature, time, the energy of the starter, the quality of the ingredients, and the love which the bread maker puts into the work. Make no mistake… creating this bread is a lot of work; multiple 10-hour days are the norm to make 48 loaves on “day 3”!

Organic artisan sourdough is all we make. At present, we offer two kinds: the traditional Country Loaf and our Cinnamon Raisin Maple Walnut Loaf. Both breads are lectin-free and gluten-neutral, the latter referring to how the gluten gets broken down by the starter over the 3-day process, making it highly digestible. We have many customers who are gluten-sensitive and they report no negative reaction to our bread. (Many people who choose to eat gluten-free products don’t realize that many of those products contain harmful lectins.)

The other half of Breadness is our Legendary Bread Gift collection featuring our bread(s) along with unique cutting boards, bread knives, tea towels, butter cooler, butters, boutique honeys, eco-friendly jute logo bags, magnets and more. One of our top gifts is the Breadness RockStar which includes a guitar-shaped cutting board made with exotic tonewoods. We just donated one of these to the KidChella Festival silent auction fundraiser for Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Burbank, which, incidentally, I happened to attend for a couple of years back in the day!

One thing about Random Acts of Breadness that sets us apart is our senior purpose: To uplift the spirit of our community. That’s what has happened as I have given this bread away the past several years. The effect has been so positive! So, although we want our first brick and mortar bakery to be financially successful, that’s not our motivation. When new people come into our shop and taste samples of our breads (and the amazing butters from Organic Pastures that we also carry), we can see their world changing before our eyes! This is usually followed by a nodding of the head and comments like, “This is really good!” (Note: on Breadness.com, there’s a “tastimonial videos” section featuring people eating Breadness for the first time. It’s not unusual for folks to react this way…)

Coming to Breadness is an uplifting experience and we love seeing repeat customers coming back for their weekly purchases. Complete strangers are becoming family for us. What more could we ask for?

What does success mean to you?
Seeing people, as they leave our shop, happier than when they came in! Feeling good about the positive effects we are creating in the community from our little micro-bakery.

Food is not unlike music in its ability to enrich and nourish people’s lives. I am fortunate to be able to create both and make a living doing what I love.

Contact Info:

• Email: rmt@breadness.com
• Website: https://breadness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/random_acts_of_breadness/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RandomActsOfBreadness/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1lO8_Wvp5WegSsWxKRjIRQ
• Other: https://breadness.com/breadness-begins-from-concept-to-concrete/