A pungent, sour smell fills the air as Fred Radwan pushes open the door to a refrigerated room that contains dozens of barrels full of what he calls “mother dough.”
“This is where my money is,” Radwan says, explaining that the roughly 800 pounds of sourdough starter inside those barrels is what gives the bread made at Bordenave’s Bakery its unique flavor.
Frank Bordenave, the first owner of the 100-year-old San Rafael bakery, brought a batch of dough back to Marin County after a trip to France, his home country, in the 1940s. The bakers at Bordenave’s have kept that batch going ever since, and are still using it today as the sourdough starter for their loaves, according to Radwan. The bakery produces over 40 million loaves of bread per year.
