Random Acts of Breadness is an artisan sourdough bakery located in central Burbank. Artisan is used in the description of this bakery to describe the amount of detail, time, and attention put into baking the sourdough bread from this bakery. Randall Michael Tobin started the business when he became interested in baking based on his desire to give gifts that he had made instead of bought. This desire combined with several books that influenced Mr. Tobin in the art of breadmaking led to him baking sourdough loaves and giving them as gifts. The artisanal sourdough bread baking process differs from the mass-produced bakery sourdough most readers are accustomed to. Even though the Breadness sourdough loaves are priced proportionately to the work that goes into them, demand will undoubtedly grow as word spreads of their fantastic quality.
In November 2016, Mr. Tobin came up with a seed of a question that germinated into a business. “I wonder if I could make sourdough bread?” With the coming holiday season upon him, he desired to create something of value rather than purchase a gift in the store. Mr. Tobin confessed; “I love food and creating healthy meals, but I 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.” The first loaves out of the oven proved disastrous but only leavened Mr. Tobin’s resolve to bake something incredible. In his quest, Mr. Tobin came upon the book Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. The recipes in Tartine Bread were slightly modified for gourmet, and artisanal purposes by Mr. Tobin and ultimately helped produce his Artisan Sourdough Country Loaf.
Another influential book in what became the Breadness formula is The Plant Paradox by Dr. Steven Gundry. In The Plant Paradox, Dr. Gundry speaks of the dangers of gluten and other similar plant-based proteins called lectins. Lectins are found in many foods popularly regarded as healthy, including nuts, vegetables, fruits, and beans. Dr. Gundry writes that there are important ways in which the danger of lectins can be avoided including a method of artisanal sourdough bread baking that exactly in line with the loaves that Mr. Tobin was already becoming a rockstar by giving away in his bakery’s community. These sourdough baking methods closely resembled ancient European baking processes emphasizing clean organic flours devoid of bran and germ along with natural sourdough starter and a 3-day baking process that demolishes the danger posed by gluten and other harmful lectins. Mr. Tobin was also careful to describe the intricate water filtration system he installed in the Breadness Bakery. The baking process requires a pressurized water supply for the steam injected deck oven. The whole bakery uses water that has had all the toxins and chemicals removed from the water. Randall Tobin credits this baking process with both the superior taste of his bread along with the healthy feeling reported back by his bakery bread consumers.
Based on the immense amount of time Randall Tobin spends baking his artisan sourdough, a visitor to the bakery is left wondering if Mr. Tobin’s objective is to benefit the community or build a profitable business. The company name Random Acts of Breadness first makes one think of kindness until you realize they only produce 48 loaves per day, two days a week. Even though the bakery sold out everything during their first weeks of production (August 2021), the company could be considered the best-kept secret in Burbank. Mr. Tobin only publicized the gourmet bread’s availability within a few block radius of his baker with hand delivered postcards. That secret did not last very long as fans of The Plant Paradox discovered Random Acts of Breadness via Facebook and word of mouth that quickly spread beyond Burbank. Now the bakery has demand for sourdough bread, a five-day production schedule, and nationwide next day shipping. Randall Tobin is enthusiastically keeping up with the demand and is researching his shipping options.
The jostling, eager customers picking up their loaves on a Friday afternoon when the Local Biz Ally photographer was taking pictures for this article might be the best testament to the quality of this bread. Breadness is a micro-bakery that evolved from a deep desire to give crafted gifts. All the baking methods that go into their bread are available in the books detailed in this article. If you have three years to learn, three days to bake, highly purified water, and a high tech steam injection oven, you can bake bread like they do at Random Acts of Breadness. Otherwise, you can order your Artisan Sourdough Country Loaf at the website below.
Random Acts of Breadness
2214 A W Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91506
(818) 562-7303
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