The pioneering bakery that spread sourdough bread culture in Japan

Levain Bakery
The pioneer bakery of domestic wheat and home-cultivated natural leaven bread in Japan.
In 1982, Pierre Buch (Macrobian) and Yasuhisa Tsunoda (President of Honbic) set up the Levein Bakery in Chofu, Tokyo. They started selling hard bread such as sourdough bread made with home-cultivated natural leaven. In 1984, Mikio Koda became the owner of the company, which became independent from Honbic, and in 1989 opened a retail shop in Tomigaya, Tokyo, in 1992 a café, Le Chalet, and in 2004 a shop in Ueda, Nagano.
The shop has produced many bakers and established home-cultivated natural leaven bread as a part of the culture in Japan.
(Levain means "natural leaven" in French)
the type of natural leaven:
1. Sourdough (the yeast doesn’t contain in any bread at all / pain au levain naturel)
Official website
levain317.jugem.jp/
Address
2-43-13 Tomigaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
4-7-31 Chuo, Ueda-shi, Nagano
Shoot & Edit : Reiya Watanabe
------------
chapter
------------
0:00 introduction
0:19 making bread
10:10 breakfast
12:38 milling with a stone mill
13:37 lunchtime
13:53 cultivating leaven
14:42 reviewing time
------------------
characters
------------------
Mikio Koda
Mikio Koda, the owner of the bakery Levain Bakery, was born in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture in 1949. After working as a teacher and various jobs, he became a staff of Levain Bakery and acquired it in 1984.
In 2001, he published the book "Levain's Natural Leaven Bread", which has become a long-seller book for making bread using home-cultivated natural leaven.
Pierre Buch
A natural leaven French baker-master, born in Morocco in a family who owned a wine farm. He was diagnosed with polio at the age of two and his legs have been paralyzed since then. In 1959, due to the ravages of the Algerian War, his family moved to a small village in southern France near Avignon.
When he was a teenager he turned to Oriental Philosophy, became macrobiotic, and in 1976 started a macrobiotic restaurant in Avignon but there were not so many customers.
During the management of the restaurant, he became very interested in MISO (a fermented food made from soybeans, koji-malt, and salt ) and came to Japan in 1978 to study MISO. He tried to negotiate with an artisanal miso maker in Tokyo but he got turned away because of his disability.
At the same time, in parallel with this, as he couldn’t find a natural leaven bread to eat, he started to bake at home his own bread with locally grown wheat he stone-milled and fermented with a starter of raisins and apple.
While in Japan he needed to earn a living and so he started working as a French teacher. One of his French students, Yasuhisa Tsunoda, the president of Honbic (a company that sells baking machinery), found a kindred spirit in Pierre Buch and established the "Levain Bakery" in 1982 with him to bake and wholesale hard bread made with home-cultivated natural leaven.
At "Levain Bakery", the bread was raised with a starter made from raisins and stone-milled flour.
This method was completely unusual even in France, as the ordinary bakeries use whole wheat flour as a starter for making natural leaven even now.
After leaving the company due to health matters, he set up Nova company in 1985, an importer of organic dried fruits and nuts.
Until 1999 the company also produced bread (the pilar of the company) made from Japan-grown, pesticide-free wheat, home stone-milled flour, and a few natural different leavens which were delivered nationwide.
At present, he continues his research at his home in Nasu, Tochigi, in pursuit of the ideal baker's leaven.
-------------------------
Related Videos
-------------------------
If you like the video, please do [Like & Subscribe]!
cutt.ly/pJMVuwv
Please watch other videos!
Wine bakers in pursuit of fermentation | Sourdough bread making in France, Paris
• Wine bakers in pursuit...
the century-old wood fired oven in a beautiful village | Sourdough bread making in France
• The century-old wood f...
Organic bread and pastry factory | Sourdough bread making in France
• Organic bread and past...
Women bakers with beautiful handwork | Sourdough bread making in France
• NO Weighing and NO Sha...
Legendary Alpine bakery with wood fired oven | Sourdough bread making in France
• Legendary Alpine baker...
Baking with a Stone Oven | Opening day after renovation of a Japanese bakery | Episode.4
• Baking bread with a wo...
Hundreds of bread baked by just one person | Sourdough bread making in Japan
• Hundreds of bread bake...
60 kinds of bread from 5 different natural leavens｜ Sourdough bread making in Japan
• 60 kinds of bread from...
A guy makes over 20 kinds of bread ALONE | Sourdough bread making in Japan
• 朝3時半から、たった1人で２０種類以上のパン...
#sourdough
#tartine
#japanesebakery
#bakery

[@BobACNJ]

I love watching bakers from other countries using natural levain techniques. It all looked very good! Thank you.

[@StayPrimal]

I love reading comments from people watching bakers from other countries using natural levain techniques.

[@JohnHumkey]

8:10 Finally, someone used enough butter to suit me.

[@rockeraja2013]

I wanna cry watching this. So beautiful..

[@gul9578]

Nobody is talking unnecessarily, every one is doing their job... amazing...

[@theweatherisaokay4964]

The bakery is so traditional it looked like inside the many anime series I've watched. The ambience of the kitchen, the old and dark machinery, the old interior, just remind me of them.

[@jenijj7347]

Yea,,i love it

[@jappojappy]

And then you see the Metallica t-shirt 😅 absolutely love it!

[@theweatherisaokay4964]

@@jenijj7347 better still Orga or Mikazuki August T-shirt

[@jenijj7347]

@@theweatherisaokay4964 both

[@gabrieltaques1562]

Lovely bakery! Such old school vibe!!! It's impressive to see bakeries working with many different types of grains. In Brazil we lack good rye, and diverse wheats... Hope to visit you guys in Tokyo someday!!!!

[@edithharmer1326]

Wow! Amazing! HEALTHY way to eat dough dishes, bread, pastries, etc… using natural fermentation such as Sourdough, Poolish, or Biga!! It is a Hard work, requires a process and time, but is worth it 100% Great video to watch. Thank you for sharing. Greetings from Singapore 🌷🌷🌷🇸🇬 Edith

[@bobgarcia2268]

Ugh! Super satisfying to watch! Will definitely visit you when I go back to Japan for vacation!!! 😍

[@ayusinnyu]

Looks yummy with black coffee ☕️

[@rara8918]

!!! Молодцы , приятно смотреть на вашу работу!!!!🙂🙂🙂

[@dusxi6475]

I absolutely love your videos !

[@tatvas9470]

Красивый хлеб!Вы большие труженики,настоящие профессионалы!👍👏👏❤️

[@Greenlife22]

that's great film about sourdough baking, merci beacucoup ..its my patience and honor to follow leaven lovers

[@edhjjyang]

頑張ってる姿が一番カッコイイです。

[@rahelwachter1283]

Ich komme aus der Schweiz und wir haben hier auch eine grosse Brotkultur. Trotz allem finde ich es sehr spannend Bäckern aus anderen Ländern zuzuschauen.

[@tbag9169]

Nice work. From french Paris Baker They work in little space, Nice organisation

[@Danielseven-ir2mq]

Because I bake sourdough bread, I Enjoyed watching. Peace.

[@selvaraj5915]

I love bakery products yours natural products every one working hard products all so looking very nice wish you all

[@teresatsai8753]

Thank you all for sharing!

[@andrehennig7916]

Greeting from Germany, you and your team play high-end! Awesome! We always watch your videos. One day we’ll come to Japan for your Brot :-) sure

[@mikesorensen1981]

It’s great to see traditional bakers in countries that normally have bread 👍 just like the bread made in Vietnam, they are Artisans! Something we are missing in our country!

[@patpatchannel4019]

สุดยอดมากค่ะ อยากชิมขนมปัง ที่พวกคุณทำจังเลยค่ะ 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵

[@milleniac]

Thank you for sharing.

[@KieuNguyen-mj2rs]

凄く働き熱心と見えます🤩

[@yonkaiten_axel4237]

Really love to watch these kind of bakery videos especially the OBST haha which makes me feel like they are like, do it for love, not for work, sharing their lovely bread to people and your video have a very different vibes and feelings from those korean type of bakery vlog uploaded by their own bakery or cafe, yours are so charming and healing, makes a person who likes bread feel comfortable and looking forward to try the bread in the store in one day Hope you can film more this kind of bakery video and thank you!

[@joaosilvestre5557]

Verdade, é incrível o amor!!

[@cchan8004]

Agree… so healing and soothing to watch (especially this bakery has such a group of calm team members…) Some bakeries focus only on how many quantities/ types of bread they offer while lacking the dedication to bread-making itself (they literally just try to satisfy as mush customers as they could which are usually under tense working pace lol every time I watch I find myself a bit stressed too😅)

[@cchan8004]

Such a pleasant record of bread-making to watch💛 (with such a harmonious) I realise some bakeries focus only on how many quantities/ types of bread they offer while lacking the dedication to bread-making itself (they literally just try to satisfy as mush customers as they could which are usually under tense working pace lol every time I watch I find myself a bit stressed too😅)

Amazing

[@princemedico2903]

Nice job guys,am also a master baker from Lagos,Nigeria... I love my job...

[@hamidofficiel5431]

So most Beautifaul work iliiiik it 👍

[@pursuingdream2766]

super cool！👍

[@philip6502]

Viewers...be sure to click on arrow down to read the background of the businesses and people.

[@leamissyoy]

Great Boulangerie, if i was a Japanese expecting to be a baker for real, this is the kind of place i'd like to start my professional carrier.

[@SuperPatochan]

petrin oblique ,nice

[@user-xs5sk3qb2v]

넘~신기해요😆👍

[@deiasilva3675]

Que lindo trabalho deve está uma delícia 😋 amo essas gostosuras que padaria linda estilosa .

[@user-fu2br5lg2x]

Ребята, вы так склонились над буханочкой хлеба , вырезая цыфру ... Вы хлебные хирурги ! Я бы нюхала каждую буханочку хлеба , этот аромат даëт жизнь ! Всë красивое и вкусное , спасибо вам и вашим рукам !

[@melodeev5487]

The girl wearing the Metallica t-shirt really cracks me up! Rock on girl!

[@facelookvlog9848]

New subscriber ☺️

[@gayagigante4685]

Mi incanto❤️

[@leamissyoy]

I was wondering if my headphone was ok lol this is so quiet ^^

[@altekameraden6279]

Halo Dozo quel farine tu utilise de la française ou japon SVP?

[@Freedom-xy6gc]

Interesting. But I have no clue what happened. Jumped around the whole time. Never stayed on on thing for more than a few seconds. No clue where the sourdough was

[@reiyawatanabe]

Thanks so much for watching! If you want to watch a 1 hour video which includes whole prose of baking, I will try to make it.

[@bilgeoesch3199]

I thought the same very potential good video but jumped around like crazy couldn’t continue watching

[@Thesouthface-w5j]

They look like Working in The Farm

[@user-ph3fq2hp3m]

Все нормальные люди едят хлеб на закваске 😊👍

[@sogo4567]

一群沉默的小蜜蜂

[@racheljoypadao6751]

Can I ask is it possible to apply for apprenticeship?

[@baselogic9]

nobody talk...nobody smile...nobody seems to enjoy....sad..

[@bk10200]

10:23 They talk, dmile, and relax. They are enjoying what they are doing. Baking and cooking require a great deal of concentration. Good teamwork and professionalism.

[@activistgranny2.066]

They are in the zone plus the ASMR aspect of the video probably had some influence. I loved it.

[@gosiadam7822]

🏆❤️👍🏻

[@user-wm3ty5co1j]

진짜 완전 맛있음. 강추 !!

[@HolahkuTaigiTWFormosanDiplomat]

ジャパン！

[@xiuywang985]

你好，请问可以转载吗？在中国有很多喜欢这样风格烘焙视频的人，希望能去发表，我也是烘焙爱好者

[@Ongloh1]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/kF7Ec5eboteDgqM

[@jackwardrop4994]

:37 anyone know what those 2 are doing ?

[@philip6502]

Probably removing loose hairs on bandanas with adhesive lint roller.

[@erxu]

@@philip6502 The concept of washing the bandannas is a little too advance!!

[@iriskairiska3858]

Пришли в пол пятого, ушли в пол седьмого. Жесть!

[@Aagata4071]

Что то делают не так.... нет крустящей корочки....

[@tadeulobo6404]

BRAZIL.👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@rashidtasybaev2777]

Даже не вериться что это в японии так все грязно

[@Vitaly_G.]

Обычно так говорят, не видя бревен в своем глазу

[@AliensKillDevils.]

太陽を楽しんで、ビーガンをもっと食べてください。動物の卵、動物のミルク、動物のチーズチーズ、昆虫の蜂蜜はありません🥬🥗🌽🥕🥦🥥🥑🍓🍇🍌🍎🍐🍑🥭🍅🥒🍉❤️🌞🌈👼❤️🏖 Goditi il ​​sole e per favore sii vegano, niente uova di animali, latte e miele🥬🥗🌽🥕🥦🥥🥑🍓🍇🍌🍎🍐🍑🥭🍅🥒🍉❤️🌞🌈👼❤️🏖

[@philip6502]

Bees + flowers = honey. Honey is wonderful. 🐝

[@matiascepeda5953]

Estos extremistas....

[@marinanet2891]

Сплошь антисанитария. Япония, Япония, а такой Срач! Извините

[@lordlem]

Ugh! Super satisfying to watch! Will definitely visit you when I go back to Japan for vacation!!! 😍

[@mrCetus]

!!! Молодцы , приятно смотреть на вашу работу!!!!🙂🙂🙂