Love in every loaf: Jonnie LoFranco lives her father’s dream through BREAD Artisan Bakery
By DIANNE RUSSELL
Photos by Mary Hurlbut
To most people, the idiom “bread is the staff of life,” couldn’t be truer. Bread is the ultimate comfort food, harkening back to family meals, the smell of a fresh-from-the-oven loaf and the ritual of sitting around the table.
“We were a big foodie family. My father [Bob Peckham] loved cooking and always had a pot of something going on the stove,” said Laguna resident Jonnie LoFranco, founder of BREAD Artisan Baker. “He instilled that love in me, and he always wanted to own a bakery and bring authentic old-world artisan bread to Southern California. The three things that are important to me now are family, food and travel.” Inspired by her father, LoFranco adores the entire process of preparing meals – from the food shopping at farmers’ markets to the preparation and serving.
Founded in 2010, the authenticity of each bakery item can be credited to the meticulous nature of her business partner since 2011, Frenchman Yannick Guegan, a lifelong professional baker. How LoFranco and Guegan met is just one of the many coincidences that led LoFranco to her business and eventually, her baker. However, first she moved cross-country a few times before her family settled in Laguna.
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Jonnie LoFranco
Originally from Rhode Island, the family moved to Newport Beach due to Peckham’s job in the computer industry with Honeywell. LoFranco, who has three older sisters, Robin, Tori and Polly, was born in Hoag Hospital and attended pre-school in Newport Beach until the family relocated to New Jersey in another work-related move.
“My parents loved the ocean and the beach, so when we moved back out here again when I was in first grade, my mom (Judy) wanted to live in Laguna. They used to visit here when they lived in Newport,” LoFranco said. “I went through the Laguna school system.”
After graduating from Laguna Beach High School, LoFranco attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), earned her degree in economics and lived in Los Angeles most of her life. “I had a career in advertising, music production,” she said.
The business of baking
LoFranco’s father opened his bakery-cafe, Breads & Spreads, in Mission Viejo in 1995. When Peckham passed away in 2001, LoFranco ended her career in Los Angeles to carry on the family business.
“I needed to establish a stable business to support myself,” she said. “I moved back here when I got divorced. I had two little kids to support [daughters Luisa and Estella] who were then 5 and 8 years old. I started to tend to the family business and I worked in that business for a while. Then in 2010, BREAD Artisan Bakery, Inc. was born.”
With no space or staff, LoFranco reached out to the Brown Bag Sandwich Company who had a large facility in San Juan Capistrano. “I sublet part of it, used their staff and supplied bread to a theme park and gathered more business,” she said. “Then they decided not to sublet.”
This was the first of many happenstances that led LoFranco to her bakery space and eventually to Guegan.
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Focaccia, one of the products at the Laguna Farmers’ Market
“So many things happen when doors are opened,” LoFranco said. “I then moved to my current space and a few months later, a Brown Bag baker introduced me to his baker, who had worked for him for 14-15 years. It was Yannick. This is only his second job in the U.S.”
In another twist of fate, LoFranco had recently eaten at Selanne Steak Tavern, and after sampling their bread, commented, “I need to find the person who made this bread.” Turned out that it was Guegan.
In 2011 when LoFranco met Guegan, they recognized their shared passion for creating a unique and superior product – in other words, delicious, hand-made artisan bread. He is now her business partner.
Guegan has spent decades baking. He found his true calling back in 1984, attending an after-school apprenticeship at a small bakery in Milizac, France. He then dedicated 10 years to learning every aspect of the bread business, from the art of the kitchen to challenges of wholesale and retail. By 1994, he was ready to bring his skill and irresistible French charm to Southern California. Today his enthusiasm for the art of bread making is as alive and inspired as it was 30 years ago.
BREAD Artisan Bakery is housed in 11,000 square feet, they have a staff of 70 people and use nine delivery vehicles. “We are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said LoFranco. “We service 150 customers a day and begin loading for deliveries between 3:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. We deliver as far away as Los Angeles and to Claremont campuses. Once the vehicles take off, we start the baking process all over again. I want to get bread to the public and ensure its quality, so we bake it fresh every day.”
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