After working in top bakeries for over a decade, baker Crystal White opened San Diego’s Wayfarer Bread with the goal of building community and making the best small-batch pastries she can. Since the bakery’s opening in 2018, she has achieved her goal, running one of the most successful bakeries in the U.S. “My hope is that we never have to change,” White says.
A day at Wayfarer Bread begins at 3:30 in the morning. Before the sun rises, White and her team are moving: mixing doughs, shaping breads, and working the ovens. “The morning bread bake is definitely one of the more time-sensitive and grueling shifts we have here,” White explains. “You’re back and forth, here and there.”
Wayfarer Bread started as a one-woman show. Having been a baker for 25 years before opening her own establishment, she understand everything that would need to go into running a bakery on her own. White developed her own methods for getting it all done on solo — methods she then passed onto her team when she began hiring people to help her. “I swear my first few employees thought that I was insane,” she says laughing. “‘You want us to do what? And how fast?’”
By the time Wayfarer Bread opens at 7:30 AM, White and her team have already prepared a variety of croissants, several types of sourdough bread, baguettes, scones, English muffins, and more. Despite not having the largest kitchen space and needing to use the one oven for different breads — which need to bake at different temperatures — White’s team has churned out countless loaves of bread and pastries before the sun has fully risen. “What I really like about baking, is that you’re really awarded for your attention to detail.”
Watch the latest episode of The Experts to learn more about how Crystal White runs one of the best bakeries in the U.S.
