Finding Her Calling in Bread – Leslie Navarro-Tafolla

For Leslie Navarro-Tafolla, the love of baking began long before she ever imagined it would become her life’s work. As a child, she loved playing house, pretending to cook and creating imaginary meals. As she grew older, that childhood curiosity turned into a genuine love of baking. She began making cakes, cupcakes and sweets for family, including personalized creations that allowed her imagination to take center stage.
She eventually attended culinary school with the intention of becoming a chef. But it was there that she discovered something unexpected.
“The second we touched sourdough, I knew bread was it for me,” Leslie recalls.
There was something about bread that captured her attention, the patience, the process and the transformation of simple ingredients into something entirely new. It wasn’t just cooking. It was a craft, and Leslie found herself drawn to it.
Her path eventually led her to work with a local baker. When that baker closed her business, an opportunity unexpectedly opened for Leslie. She began working from the kitchen space and soon found herself baking bread for a restaurant that asked her to become its in-house baker.
Leslie made all of the restaurant’s bread from scratch, gaining valuable experience and developing her own skills along the way. But she began to realize that she wanted more. She wanted the freedom to experiment, to create new breads and, most importantly, to develop something that was truly her own.
Then came a conversation that helped set that dream in motion.
The chef who had purchased her former employer’s cast-iron pans was using them in his own kitchen. Leslie asked if she could buy the pans back so she could start something of her own. He agreed—and became her very first account.
That small beginning eventually grew into BreadBasket Bake House.
Today, Leslie’s days are filled with the rhythms of artisan baking, mixing dough, shaping loaves, waiting patiently for them to rise and watching as they emerge from the oven beautifully transformed. Her creations include sourdough breads, pretzels, English muffins, cinnamon rolls and an ever-changing selection of specialty breads.
But behind every loaf is something more personal: Leslie’s belief that food has the ability to create a moment of happiness.
“There’s just something magical about making something with your hands and watching someone light up because of it,” she says. “That feeling has never left me.”
That feeling may be the heart of Leslie’s story. What began with childhood games of pretending to cook eventually became a lifelong passion for creating something real. She didn’t simply choose bread as a career; she discovered a craft that brought together her creativity, curiosity and love of making things by hand.
And perhaps that is what makes artisan food so special. Behind every loaf is a person who cared enough to make it, and for Leslie, that has always been the art of bread.
You can find Leslie at the Valencia FivePoint Farmer’s Market or order direct at https://www.hotplate.com/breadbasketbh.

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