“At the beginning of the pandemic, I think of sourdough bread, I think of banana bread,” Cohen said. “When you start to see everyone else (making a recipe), since we can t physically be with each other, it becomes this kind of connector where everyone feels a little bit more connected if they re all making the same thing.”
There is more than anecdotal evidence to support sourdough’s meteoric rise in popularity amid the pandemic. According to Google’s annual trend report, sourdough bread was its most-searched-for recipe of 2020; healthy banana bread came in at tenth on the same list.
This “FOMO-baking” had real-world impacts on the supply chain as well. At King Arthur Baking Company, one of the nation’s largest flour producers, sales increased by around 600% in the month of March alone, before plateauing at around a 300% increase in April. At the same time, calls to the company’s Baker’s Hotline a phone number manned by culinary staff who field calls fr