The Bakery - John Lamont

My Peruvian dad, Hector, does not have an average work schedule. He wakes up at 2 AM to begin baking bread and finishes at 9 AM after baking an incredible 6,700 loaveso f bread. Then it's breakfast time, before starting his day job as a maintenance man. I get to wake up to hot and fluffy bread every day, and the smell of dough and crust wafts through every room in the house. The bakery takes up half the house, with one room entirely devoted to the wood fired stove oven. It's a half dome that requires a 10 foot spatula to reach the loaves in the back of the oven. Each loaf is a perfect circle about half a foot across with a dimple in the middles. This is where Hector pokes every single loaf with his  flour covered thumb to make sure there is no trapped air inside. Then his younger helper Carlos puts 4 at a time on the end of the 10 foot spatula and shovels them off in perfect lines throughout the oven. I once reached to eat a slightly burnt loaf from a basket. "No!" Hector said. "That will go to the cafes. Have these." He handed me the softest hottest and tastiest bread I've ever had. "The best bread stays at home" , he chuckled. Jackpot!