Hi, I'm Gerard.

I started baking bread in 2015, and I have to admit that my first breads came out of an automatic bread machine. It didn't last long. Once I started seeing what people could make with their own hands, I thought, “OK, I need to learn how to do this.” I gave the machine away and started from scratch.

I'm an engineer, so I probably approached bread the same way I approach most things. I started reading, researching, trying things, changing recipes, and trying again. I got into sourdough pretty quickly, and I've been baking it ever since. Over the years I've made sourdough, bagels, challah and plenty of other breads, accumulated more equipment than I probably need, and spent a ridiculous amount of time reading about dough and fermentation. I even built an app, DoughPilot, for planning and tracking sourdough bakes. So yes, I really like bread.

I grew up in Spain, but interestingly, I didn't grow up baking bread. Good bread is so easy to find there that there really isn't much reason to make your own. But I did grow up around good food, and I think that has stayed with me. I care a lot about the ingredients I use and I like keeping things simple. And yes, my challah uses extra virgin olive oil. I'm Spanish. What else was I going to use?

I'd made challah a few times over the years, mostly because it was another bread I wanted to try. It became much more important to me after we moved to Sharon in 2024. Through our son, the JCC and Temple Sinai, our family became more involved in the Jewish community. My husband and son converted to Judaism in 2026, and Shabbat became part of our Friday nights. Making the challah became my thing.

Of course, I couldn't just find a recipe and leave it alone. I spent months changing mine. A little more of this, less of that, different timing, different process. Eventually I got to the challah I wanted, and started bringing it whenever we had Shabbat dinner with friends.

That's really how Loaves by Gerard started. Friends kept telling me, “Gerard, you should sell these.” Some told me they'd happily buy one every Friday. I didn't take it very seriously at first, but eventually I thought, why not? I was already baking all the time anyway.

And now, surprisingly, challah has taken over most of my baking. I still make sourdough, but there's a limit to how much bread we can eat at home, so these days I sometimes bake a few loaves, tell people they're available, and see who wants one.

What I enjoy most about Loaves by Gerard is actually what happens after the bread is on someone's table. I love hearing that a family had one of my challahs on their table for Shabbat. I make little challah bites for kids, and I've had friends send me videos of their kids jumping around saying, “This is the best challah I've ever had!” I love that. It makes me ridiculously happy.

I'm still experimenting, still tweaking things, and still learning. I don't think that part is ever going to stop. I make everything in small batches, use ingredients I feel good about, and bake the same way I did before Loaves by Gerard existed.

The only difference is that now I get to share a lot more of it.