How it all started...
Long before Nexus Bread Lab had a name, before the formulas, the late nights, the fermentation charts, and the years spent in the food industry, there was a little girl walking beside her grandmother through the streets of Tehran, following the smell of fresh bread drifting through the morning air.
The neighborhood bakeries came alive before the sun fully rose. Sangak, barbari, and lavash bakeries filled the streets with warmth, movement, and rhythm. To a child, it was magical.
I remember standing completely mesmerized by the bakers. Their movements were strong yet graceful, pulling soft dough from massive mixers, stretching it by hand, tossing it across long cushions, and pressing it against the hot oven. Flour floated through the air like dust in sunlight. The sound of dough meeting the Tanoor walls, the crackle of oven, as its heat radiated against my face. The toasted aroma of wheat and fire.
And then came the best part.
The hot bread almost burned my small hands, but I wanted it too intensely to let go. Tearing into it on the walk home with my grandmother, steam escaped from the center, the crispy crust, the inside soft and alive. To my childhood senses the subtle sweetness of the wheat felt like the food of the gods! Those moments stayed with me long after childhood passed.
Without realizing it then, the bakeries of Tehran were shaping my senses. Bread became more than food. It became memory, connection, movement, warmth, and care.
Then life changed.
The Iranian Revolution transformed the future of many families, including mine, and eventually led us to leave our homeland and begin again as immigrants in a new country. But even through all the change, those early memories of bread, warmth, family, and tradition never left me.
Over the next 25 years, I built a career across many areas of the food industry, from baking and pastry to chocolate and confectionery, from product development and commercialization to sales, operations, and innovation strategy. I learned the science behind food, the discipline of manufacturing, and the art of transforming ideas into products people genuinely connect with.
After decades, I found myself returning to the same feeling I had as a child standing inside those bakeries fascinated by the beauty of simple things made with care and intention.
That return became Nexus Bread Lab.
A place where memory meets experience, old-world bread traditions merge with modern craftsmanship, science of slow fermentation, and years of industry knowledge. All deeply rooted in my journey, from the bakeries of Tehran, to life as an immigrant, to decades spent building a career in food.
Everything we make at Nexus carries part of that story.
The time required for each creation. The respect for process. The clean and true ingredients. The belief that when something is made with intention, it can nourish not only the body, but also memory, connection, and community.
What began as childhood wonder eventually became a lifelong calling. And today, Nexus Bread Lab is my way of sharing that story…. one meaningful bite at a time.