My name is Daisuke Sasagawa (33 years old), and I bake bread at Kamapan & Store, part of the Food Hub Project in Kamiyama, Tokushima Prefecture. I'm originally from Tokyo, and my family moved to Kamiyama two years ago. We recently had our third child.
The other day, I had the opportunity to attend Monosus' regular monthly meeting and talk about "routine work and project work."
The routine work I do when making bread is to improve the quality of the bread I make every day. Project work is activities other than regular bread making, such as external events and classes at local schools. I mentioned that routine work is only for the success of project work, but I will write here what I didn't say at that time and what I want to say more about (as much as I want to say). By writing this article, I would like to organize my words again and take the next step.
Bread to sell?
After working at a bakery in Tokyo for nearly 10 years, I began to question the food and beverage system, which is based solely on the exchange of money and goods, and on the idea that work is done to make something that sells. I want to make the bread I want to make. However, the more I think about it, the more I feel confused by the meaning of running my own store and what I want to do, and I continue to worry. When I was wondering if business could only be done through the existing system, I was introduced to a job offer at Food Hub.
Food Hub's activities are centered around the theme of "local production and local food," and it values visible relationships. I was interested in connecting with the local community and food culture through bread. I thought that this would be the place to solve the questions I had been having, and I immediately decided to go to Kamiyama. The fact that Monosus, a web company, was involved in the project meant that I thought I might be able to find a new way to run a bakery, which was a big factor for me.
The bread I want to make is bread that becomes a part of people's lives. Not the kind of bread that's trending at the moment, but bread that can be eaten at any given time, using ingredients that are available at the time.
On the other hand, the bread we make at Kamapan is "local bread." It is bread that people living in Kamiyama can eat on a daily basis. We aim to make bread that people will want to eat every day, as if it were a part of their daily lives.
The job of a baker is to bake bread in the same way every day. To do that, we adjust the temperature and water content every day to control the dough. When Kamapan first opened, it felt like we were trying to fit the manufacturing method in to get closer to a set final shape. We make bread according to the theory of how bread is baked. Looking back, I don't think I put much of my own feelings into it at the time.
Since coming to the Food Hub, I have had to use recipes and ingredients I was unfamiliar with, and I have had to make bread every day according to the concept I was given. Seeing the bread change every day has been rewarding and fun.
Although it may seem like I do the same thing every day, I make subtle changes as I go along. Those who understand my daily ingenuity will understand, but those who don't will see it as just regular bread. However, even here, there are endless worries.
My job is to bake bread every day, but because Food Hub is a newly established company, I have had a lot of time to think about things other than bread. In the midst of all this, I lost sight of my job and what I needed to do.
Get as many people as possible to eat it
One of the things we had to think about was sales measures, which are essential for running a store.
"How much are you short on sales?" "How many can you make?" "What can you do?" "Why can't you do it?"
When he said something I'd heard somewhere before, I wondered, "Is it the same in Kamiyama?" I wanted to say, "I know that!" but I couldn't come up with a strategy or way to counter him. The more we talked, the more uncomfortable I felt.
I had heard that they had a relationship with a web company, so I assumed they had a system in place for analysis and strategy creation, and that I would be able to run a new bakery.
Exchange of money for goods, measures and work for sales. I also started to worry about whether I was fighting with the existing system. Is it a job to make or maintain sales, instead of doing what I want to do? When I thought about it, I couldn't challenge the system I wanted to challenge here. No, I began to seriously think that I couldn't solve that question at the bakery by my own power.
While I was thinking about this, I had the opportunity to attend training at the famous Katane Bakery in Yoyogi-Uehara, Tokyo. If I could not incorporate my ideas into the bakery system during this training, I was planning to quit the bakery. This was a turning point for me.
I prepared my thoughts in advance, and when I started the training, I asked the chef anything I was curious about. Looking back, he might have thought, "What are you doing here? Didn't you come to look at bread?" (laughs)
At that time, I was told things like, "You still have a lot to do," "Your feelings will be revealed to the customers," and "Bread is all about numbers." I received many words that made me realize how naive I was to complain about the existing system when I hadn't achieved or realized anything, and somehow I felt relieved. What I am doing now at Food Hub is just a way of doing things within the framework I have arbitrarily set, and it is proof that it has not become my own in the truest sense.
"Everything is useless unless it's approved, so if you can't do that, you might as well give up the seat."
When I heard that, I was convinced. There was still a lot I needed to do. I had thought that it didn't have to be me who made the bread at the Food Hub, but that's when I decided that it was something I wanted to do.
The first concrete thing I did after returning to Kamiyama was to increase the amount I made. I increased my production from 100 loaves of bread, which I had previously said was my limit, to 200 loaves during busy periods, and focused on making the bread.
Rather than focusing on sales, I want to let as many people as possible know that there is such delicious bread. I want to convey my feelings to customers by putting them into the bread. I think that what I make is meaningful if it is evaluated by customers (sales).
My idea of bread is something that should be a part of people's lives, so I wanted to make that happen in Kamiyama.
Bread baked every day, bread I want to make
Around the same time as I was training at Katane Bakery, I had the opportunity to hold a bread and wine event. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time but had not been able to take the plunge. Then, I met a sommelier who had moved to Tokushima, and it gave me the opportunity to do it.
There, I made what I honestly wanted to make, not the bread that is usually served at Kamapan. The concept was "bread I want to eat." I simply made the bread that I wanted, regardless of whether it went well with wine or not. It wasn't the everyday bread that Kamapan makes, but bread that I put my feelings into. I felt like it reflected who I am now. It was an event where I felt that I could communicate even if my skills and ideas were immature.
I believe this also relates to the bread I bake every day. By improving the precision of the kama bread I bake every day as routine work, the bread I make as project work also comes to life. It was an opportunity to think about why I bake, and the importance of daily effort.
Now, I continue making bread, thinking that there may be a new perspective that emerges from the careful crafting of the bread. It feels like the more I work on it, the more refined my skills become.
From now on, I would like to make bread at Food Hub that suits each individual, which has been my goal since my time in Tokyo. I have always been interested in Ayurveda, a form of oriental medicine. I wonder if using this approach could make bread that is unique and tailored to the constitution of each person who eats it. How can we make bread that fits people's lives? It's a daily process of trial and error.
People ask me if I can do that, but I feel that it is my role to do it. I will continue to bake bread to enrich people's lives.