Measuring Mystery: A Baker's Science

Measuring Mystery

Baking generally, and bread-making specifically, involves detailed scientific analysis. It also requires the presence of other more mysterious and subjective phenomena: intimacy, appetite, pleasure, belonging, cultural meaning and much more.

Join Sub Rosa Bakery Co-owner Evrim Dogu for an intriguing presentation about how the scientific and seemingly non-scientific aspects of everyday life factor into his baked goods.

The son of Turkish immigrants, Dogu grew up around food, both at his father’s Louisiana pizza joints and through his mother’s diverse Anatolian dishes. In 2009, he turned his baking hobby into a bread subscription business. In 2012, he collaborated with his sister, Evin Dogu, to open their dream wood-fired bakery, now a Richmond staple. Sub Rosa is one of the very few exclusively wood-fired bakeries in the country that produces bread and croissants each day directly for the public.

Since its inception, Sub Rosa has milled its own flour. In 2018, Dogu helped form the nonprofit Common Grain Alliance which aims to recreate a regional grain economy and culture in the Mid-Atlantic region. To this day, Dogu experiments with grains, including baking with landrace varieties from Turkey and the Republic of Georgia.

Dogu’s presentation will flow freely between scientific philosophy, human psychology, creativity, technical bread discussions and interdisciplinary worldviews. He might even bring samples!

Sunrise Science

• Who: Sub Rosa Bakery Co-owner Evrim Dogu
• When: Wednesday, January 15, 8 a.m.
• Where: Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 W. Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220