During construction, Back sent letters to prospective accounts to introduce Yankellow, showcasing him as a gold medal winner of the World Baking Cup. “We wanted to let the business community know about how serious we were about introducing truly authentic, traditional bread of the highest quality,” Back says.

They chose to focus on high-end destination resorts, hotels, restaurants and food markets. “Businesses that recognize the value that we offer,” he explains. “From the beginning, we've invested a huge amount of money in branding our product. This is important because we are not selling a commodity product. We want to ensure that people tie together the quality of our product and our brand.”

Back adds that they plan not to go deep into the marketplace “because all bread is not created equal. We don't want to see our bread put into a store or resort where the consumer does not recognize the value of our product.”

Of nearly 200 available bread and roll products, baguettes, Rustica (ciabatta) and challah sell best. Simply Bread introduced challah because Phoenix's ethnic food markets were buying most kosher-certified bread from Los Angeles bakeries, Back says. “By securing these accounts from the beginning, we were able to be up and running while going after the resort business.”

Other examples include Down Home (contains 10 varieties of grains and seeds), The Champ (wheat, rye and oat dough with sesame, flax and toasted sunflower seeds), Pain de Mie (white bread from long-fermented dough) and The Masterpiece (features jumbo organic raisins and toasted walnut halves).

Simply Bread is steadily gaining a reputation for creating custom products.

“Resort chefs want special products that stand out, that complement their restaurants' themes and formats,” Back explains. “Instead of just adding flavors to a dough, we create a flavorful bread with its unique formula that retains its artisanal characteristics.”

For example, walnut raisin cranberry bread is not walnut raisin bread with cranberries added. Its sourdough formula calls for a rye levain, instead of a wheat levain, which bakers use for raisin walnut bread. Walnut raisin is less dense and is used as table bread, while customers use walnut raisin cranberry for breakfast, Yankellow says.

“Before a sales call, we spend time to learn what the potential customer is doing — the theme, the menu — to identify how we can add value to the product line,” Back says. “Then we set up a time when the contact can experience — taste — our product. We leave product for them to experiment with their food. Our job is to meet their needs so that they can meet the needs of their customers.”

The Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale epitomizes Simply Bread's approach, he says. The resort purchases product from a list of 33 different bread and roll items. Executive Pastry Chef Anthony Patafio says Yankellow studied the resort's menus, tasted the food, and then developed more than a dozen candidates for tasting. The resort selected four, among them fresh jalapeño corn bread for the resort's southwestern theme restaurant.

Yankellow attributes the bread products' good flavor, texture and appearance to the use of fresh, high-quality ingredients and production methods that maintain dough integrity. “To get the best raisins, Harold [Back] at first drove to Sacramento to pick up raisins and walnuts,” Yankellow says. “After the suppliers understood we would be a regular customer, they began shipping their products.”

Bakers prepare the fresh ingredients. For example, they roast garlic, onions and chili, chipotle and jalapeño peppers, and process sweet potatoes for potato bread. “Fresh ingredients often require adjusting our formulas to account for added moisture, but we do this to produce the freshest possible product,” he explains.

Properly aged flour also contributes to the bread and rolls' quality, Yankellow adds. Flour with 12 percent protein will have aged two weeks prior to delivery and ages another three to four weeks in the bakery's refrigerated storage unit. Bakers pull pallets two days in advance of use to allow the flour to warm to a climate-controlled 72°F to 74°F.

The bakery operates seven days a week, producing 3,500 to 5,500 lbs. of 25 different doughs daily, excluding holidays, to yield 6,000 to 11,000 pieces.