The first two things started to miss from the shelves of the supermarkets were flour and yeast. First, the most common white wheat flour disappeared and then spelt, einkorn, durum, farro, barley, rye... But why flour and yeast? Because people started to bake breads at home.

Bread is alive. Bread is flour, water with a pinch of salt created by the four elements and human hands. Bread can teach us smelling, kneading, looking, listening and tasting. Bread is all in one, it is human history, it is our life.

But we do not bake anymore. Someone else is baking for us, and we are missing good bread like nothing else.

There has been a quality bakery, sourdough bread, and make-your-own-bread renaissance going on for the past 10 years. There are countless stories about people giving up their careers, to become bakers. All of them talk about finding their true vocation. I believe them, and you do too, if you have ever folded a warm bread dough or taken out a bread from your oven...

What I found very interesting what happened right in the beginning of the pandemic, as like first symptoms in private homes. I believe everyone knew at least one person, who started to bake - without having a previous interest or knowledge about bread. And it made me think: why baking? And why bread?

Bread is -still- the most basic food item all over the world. It is made in every corner of this Planet. Where there are people, there is also bread. And even though Europe does not bake at home anymore, it is still our main everyday food. We could basically survive on bread. A good bread has everything we need. And this is the most imporant thing when there is a pandemic; to stay alive. That is why flour and yeast were gone first. That is why people piled them up in their homes in huge quantities. That is why people turned on the oven and started to bake bread. I am convinced; the art of baking and the irresistible love of bread is encoded in us - in order to survive. That is why it is really difficult to find someone who can - out of free will - resist a crispy and yet soft bite of freshly baked bread.

If there is a good side to a pandemic, this time it made us realize how fragile and depended we have become. It awakened our inner survival animal. Instead of panicking, we started baking, kneading, swapping sourdoughs, and exchanging bread recipes. We started experimenting with different flours, nuts and fruits in yeast and sourdough breads. We took the first step of self-sufficiency with practicing the most basic and most favoured food.

No one knows how the corona pandemic is going to continue or end up. But we have already proven that we want to live here and we can still feed and sustain ourselves. Each of us, one by one, because we didn't forget one of the most basic skills, which makes us the opposite of being fragile and depended. And which makes us human more than anything else: the art of baking a loaf of bread, and eating and sharing it with love.