A Note On Privilege

Having the freedom to bake is a privilege.

I’m a big fan of baking teacher and author Andrew Janjigian because he doesn’t pretend baking exists in a vacuum. He pays attention to the world around him, and when he recommended Existential Bread by Jim Franks, I was curious enough to pick up a copy and I was hooked from the first page.

Before talking about flour, fermentation, or technique, Franks talks about privilege, which got my attention:

The ability to make these decisions
and the education needed
to even know we have a choice
is a privilege
based on money
energy
and time

Most baking books begin with ingredients. This one begins by acknowledging that the ability to care deeply about baking is itself a luxury.

The freedom to experiment, buy specialty ingredients, replace failed loaves, and spend hours learning a craft isn’t available to everyone. It exists because we have time, money, stability, and access to education.

While I want people who have this privilege
to make better choices
I also want to acknowledge
that most people on this planet don’t
have such freedom

I enjoy that privilege too.

I spend my weekends baking shokupan, testing recipes, and learning techniques simply because I can. Those are opportunities that exist because my basic needs are met while many people in the US are struggling with everyday expenses and around the world children and women are trying to survive genocides.

Remembering that changes how I think about baking.

It shifts the focus from accomplishment to gratitude.

Later, Franks writes:

We live in a system based on earned capital
where we produce enough
for everyone on earth to be fed
and we waste more than half of what we make
while people die from starvation every day

Bread doesn’t exists apart from the world that produces it.

That’s what I appreciated most about the opening of Existential Bread. Before teaching us how to make better bread, Jim Franks reminds us to see more clearly.

It’s a reminder I want to carry gratitude, humility, and an awareness that having the freedom to choose is itself a gift into every loaf I bake.

A small practice: The next time you’re about to bake, pause for a moment. Remember that the freedom to bake is a privilege. Hold in your thoughts those who don’t have that same freedom, and let that awareness fill your loaf with gratitude, humility, and care.

Make bread, not war! 🍞

Rizwan