Ciao! Welcome to The Perfect Loaf, a website dedicated to baking naturally leavened bread and pastry at home. I'm , a software engineer-turned-baker living in Albuquerque, NM, and I created The Perfect Loaf in 2013 to share my passion and lessons learned when baking sourdough from home. I grew up in an Italian household, and our lives revolved around good food made by hand. Whether it was the pizza and pasta my Dad cooked at his restaurant, or the gnocchi and risotto my Mom & Grandmother prepared at home, I was imbued with an appreciation for homemade food that takes time to prepare-slow food. Long trips to visit relatives in Italy were filled with family meals around the wood-fired oven, mornings wandering the cobblestone streets in search of fresh bread, and of course of focaccia topped with ripe tomatoes packed for a long day at the beach. Experiment, play, realize that failure isn't really , it's an edible part of your evolution as a baker.