The World Cup has brought the beautiful game to America, and with it, hordes of international players and fans eager to eat their way across the country. Scots are drinking the beer dry in Boston, while Norwegians feast on pastrami in NYC. Even as they’re flying home, TSA is warning them to store their souvenir bottles of ranch dressing (opens in new tab) in checked bags.
There have been six games at the venue temporarily known as the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, and two teams based locally with Australia in Alameda and Paraguay in San Jose. And yet, somehow there have been no reported instances of World Cup players or fans packing foil-wrapped Mission burritos or quarts of cioppino in their luggage.
But at least one visiting team did the work to seek out San Francisco’s famous sourdough.
Source: Giselle Garza Lerma for The Standard
Last month, Thomas “Mac” McConnell of the Midwife and the Baker (opens in new tab) in Mountain View received an intriguing message on Instagram. Baker Michael Schulze of Brotbruder (opens in new tab) in Freiburg, Germany,, slid into his DMs: The Austrian team, which would play Jordan in a group-stage match June 16, was looking for bread. “It was a real thrill,” McConnell says, “to be thinking you’re fueling athletes for one of the most important games of their lives.”
Martin Rinderer, the official nutritionist for the Austrian national football team, told McConnell the team travels with a couple of chefs and pasta made in Europe but sources freshly baked bread in every city. The athletes wanted loaves for breakfast, lunch, and dinner leading up to the game. Rinderer specifically requested that McConnell use European ingredients and techniques, meaning the bread had to be naturally leavened and slowly fermented.
“Digestion is critical, especially in the days leading up to a match,” Rinderer wrote in an email. “There are significant differences in how the gut reacts to ‘standard’ American bread versus traditional European bread.”
European techniques would not be an issue, McConnell said. The Midwife and the Baker, one of the Bay Area’s top bakeries, was among the first to mill their own flour, a labor of love that unlocks next-level aroma and flavor. Previously, McConnell was an instructor at the San Francisco Baking Institute and worked closely with a German baker who taught “seedy buns and hearth loaves.”
Source: Giselle Garza Lerma for The Standard
Source: Giselle Garza Lerma for The Standard
But European ingredients were a nonstarter; the Midwife and the Baker uses only local and organic grains. (McConnell refuses to even order kamut from Texas.)
Rinderer determined this was up to the team’s standards. The Austrians ordered loaves of the country sourdough, made with 50% whole wheat flour, and 100% whole wheat loaves; khorasan baguettes made from the nutty ancient grain; and sourdough studded with sunflower and flax seeds. The bakery also produced buns and breadsticks dipped in pumpkin seeds, which are not on the regular menu.
The downtown Mountain View bakery is known for naturally leavened sourdough bread and pastries made with freshly milled, organic grains. | Source: Giselle Garza Lerma for The Standard
Austria went on to defeat Jordan 3-1 — its first World Cup victory in 36 years. Whether the fresh sourdough had anything to do with it is impossible to say. McConnell, more cyclist and rock climber than soccer fanatic, still found himself caught up in the moment. “There’s San Francisco sourdough and the fame of that,” he says. But hearing that they specifically valued the high-quality ingredients — “that really made my heart sing.”
For a baker who invests heavily in local, organic, freshly milled flour, it felt like the ultimate validation.