Rich G.
Rich is a Bay Area native, having grown up in Los Altos, CA, and loves to cook all manner of foods, not just bread. Low and slow, southern-style BBQ is one of his other passions….another endeavor which takes a lot of patience, is relatively simple on the face of it, but difficult to master! Rich has always been fermenting something since he started home-brewing his own beer in the early ‘90’s, dabbled in cheese-making, then charcuterie, and eventually started making his own sourdough bread in 2011. His bread passion began as merely a means to put really tasty bread on his family’s table, and share it with friends and family. Nickel Cat Bread Co. is just an extension of that passion, and Rich loves baking nutritious and delicious bread for his customers that only contains three ingredients…..all of which you can pronounce!
Ginny
Ginny (short for Amgine) is the superstar and workhorse of the Nickel Cat Bread Co. bakery. A “wild yeast” starter that Rich created with simple a mix of flour and water, Ginny provides all of the leavening power for the entire Nickel Cat menu, and also brings that tangy, acidic flavor for which naturally leavened, or sourdough, bread is known. Since the bakery is still small, with limited production, Ginny gets to relax most days in the fridge. When it’s time to get ready for a baking session, she gets moved to the counter where two or three measured innoculations of flour and water get her super strong and active. Without Ginny, there is no Nickel Cat bread, so she has been permanently named Employee of the Month!
Taffy
With a name like Nickel Cat Bread Co., it seemed like we should have a picture of a cat on this page. Oddly, though, the name of our bakery has nothing to do with a cat, but rather is an homage to our three wonderful daughters. Having said that, our twelve year old cat, Taffy, serves as something of a feline mascot for the bakery, and she keeps a watchful eye on Rich and Ginny to make sure they aren’t doing anything untoward.