How Baker Kamel Saci Almost Didn’t Become a Baker

“One of my secrets: I don’t eat bread. Not too much. Maybe I have one slice a week. Most of the time, when I do the bread, I don’t try the bread. I don’t have to try the bread to tell you if it’s good bread or not. I just have to see the bread. You can tell. I don’t know if this is a secret; a lot of bakers don’t eat bread. Everyone thinks I eat a lot of bread. When they ask me, I say, ‘Yes, yes. I eat a lot of bread.’ 

“Another secret: When I start to be a bread baker … I have two brothers and one sister. My two brothers work for the French government, they’re cops. I also took the test to be a police officer. I was baking bread and received a notice to start training. I refused to go to, to do baking [instead]. Nobody knows this. My father knows, but he wasn’t very happy about it.”

Kamel Saci is the Head Baker at il Buco and il Buco Alimentari & Vineria.

Interview and photos by Kara Chin