Before pushing bread boundaries by innovating Rize Up Bakery’s sourdough flavors like Ube, Gochujang, and Garlic Confit, Azikiwee “Z” Anderson channeled his culinary skills into preparing seven-course meals as a private chef. When the pandemic started in March 2020, Z shifted gears, staying home to make sure his kids stayed on top of their Zoom classes. He also built community through a “foodie text thread” with other parents, in which he was eventually encouraged (and somewhat peer pressured) to try his hand at making sourdough.
In the time of civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Z’s reluctant experimentation with sourdough became an important salve for his state of mind. Shaping and baking bread helped him navigate days where he either felt “like crying or throwing something through a wall.” Before he knew it, baking one loaf a week turned into 150 a day as he filled orders from the Bay Area to Brooklyn. Rize Up Bakery joined the Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market earlier this year. We talked with Z about what the business means to him, how it’s growing, and why representations of Black artisan bakers are so important today and for future generations.