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Do you know what’s been around the Bay Area longer than the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Ferry Building, and Coit Tower? The answer is world-famous Colombo and Parisian sourdough French breads, both baked fresh daily in San Francisco and Oakland since the mid-1800s.

Tangy, golden brown sourdough French bread is San Francisco’s culinary landmark. This unique bread originated during Northern California’s Gold Rush days, when French immigrants combined their hearth bread-baking skills with a natural wild yeast starter that came to be known as the “mother dough.” This is a naturally-fermenting base, used in place of yeast.

John Vrattos, a Northern California gourmet cook who has been in the sourdough bread business for over twenty-five years, has worked for the world’s top producers of sourdough breads, including Parisian and Colombo bakeries. When Vrattos realized there was not a cookbook devoted to the famous San Francisco sourdough bread bowl, featured at Fisherman’s Wharf with clam chowder, he sat down with national food writer Lisa Messinger and created The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook.

Vrattos and Messinger explain the easy process of carving out a sourdough bread bowl and filling it with dozens and dozens of recipes. Some of the dishes were developed by San Francisco’s top chefs and other recipes are from the Vratto’s Greek family. In all, there are over 100 recipes from appetizers, soups, salads, and entrees.

Parisian Bakery was established in 1856 by one of the enterprising French bakers. He experimented with variations of this uniquely American sour starter and developed a sourdough French bread loaf that captured the romance and spirit of San Francisco.
Once a portion of the “mother dough” is mixed with flour, water, and salt, the bread dough is allowed to rest, or proof, for up to 17 hours. Each loaf of Parisian sourdough bread still requires almost 24 hours of carefully supervised production time.

In 1984, the San Francisco French Bread Company was formed as the parent company to the San Francisco Bay Area’s finest and oldest sourdough French bread bakeries. This combined the original Parisian family operation, along with another quality brand, Colombo, established in 1896, and produced the same high-quality Parisian sourdough bread.