From founding baker, Celine Underwood:
“As a teenager I watched, enthralled, as my first loaf of Challah sprang to life in my home oven; I felt brilliant. Then one day my neighbor, Alan Scott, stopped by to drop a heavy loaf of Desem bread in my hands; I was intrigued. I took up his offer to come see his backyard brick oven, and from there my passion for bread grew.

Knowing of my growing infatuation with breads and sourdoughs in particular, Alan suggested I come up and meet a young baker who was doing “great things” in his kitchen. It was Chad Robertson; he had yet to establish Bay Village Bakery.

I spent the next few years baking professionally, meeting talented bakers and learning new techniques. I travelled through France as well, hoping to apprentice at some fabulous boulangerie. This proved more difficult than I’d envisioned and I mostly ended up eating my way through the country, mentally storing away the breads that inspired me. It wasn’t until later that I was able to realize my desire to bake in France.

When I returned home to Point Reyes, I found that Bay Village Bakery was ready to vacate and so the opportunity arose to buy Chad’s brick oven and establish Brickmaiden Breads. I opened the doors of Brickmaiden in October 2000 and, since then we have become a wonderful family of bakers with an incredible community of supporters and enthusiasts.”