It took months of practice and countless burn scars before Jacqui Viscarello and Athene Yagjian could enjoy their oven-fresh, homemade sourdough bread.
Lynnfield residents Viscarello and Yagjian have turned the COVID-19 trend of do-it-yourself sourdough bread into a part-time business called Fire & Flour.
On the outside, Viscarello’s home seems like any other in her neighborhood — and it usually is. But, from Tuesdays to Thursdays, she and Yagjian turn the residential kitchen into a factory for dozens of loaves of bread, bags of cookies, cups of honey cinnamon butter, and endless smiles.
Although they have full-time jobs and consider this a “side hustle,” Yagjian and Viscarello put in countless hours at Fire & Flour. The pair said they shop for fresh ingredients on Tuesdays, prep the dough on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and then get up at 4 a.m. for a baking “marathon” on Thursdays to have the loaves out on their porch for pick-up that afternoon. All the baking takes place in the comfort of their own homes.
Viscarello and Yagjian said they met in 2008 when they began working at the newly-built P.F. Chang’s at the Northshore Mall as waitresses, and have been friends ever since. They said they became closer when Viscarello, a Lynn native, moved to Lynnfield in 2019.
Yagjian said she began baking sourdough in November 2023 to give out as Christmas presents.
“I wanted to master it… but that was a fail,” she said.
Despite her failed attempts, Yagjian kept trying.
“I was just determined to show people I could do it,” she said. “I wanted to feed my kids bread that didn’t have preservatives… I wanted to build a three-ingredient bread.”
“She gifted me a loaf and I was like, ‘This is really good,’” Viscarello said. “I always knew that if there were to be some opportunity, we would make good business partners.”
The pair said they first launched their “mini drop” in the beginning of April 2024, and now sell a rotating menu, which includes a variety of sourdough and focaccia breads, pizza dough, cookies, spreads, butters, and dehydrated sourdough-starter packs.
“The excitement has been so strong since the mini drop,” Yagjian said.
This became clear to the duo from the support on Instagram and other social-media platforms.
Since then, they have been constantly teaching themselves about the “science” of baking sourdough to expand their menu.
Viscarello and Yagjian said they only use three key ingredients for their basic sourdough starter — flour, filtered water, and salt. Their starter, which they’ve named “Pia,” is the foundation for all of their baked goods.
“We’re always building the menu,” Viscarello said.
They include their plain sourdough bread every week and add in a sweet and a savory loaf, which ranges from chocolate chip and honey and oats to everything bagel and jalapeño and cheddar.
The duo embraces the process of experimenting with new flavors and toppings, but both agree that the everything-bagel loaf is their favorite.
“One day when we first tested the everything loaf — our first one — we took a tub of cream cheese out of her fridge and just sat there and pounded the whole loaf,” Yagjian said with a smile.
Viscarello and Yagjian are both Lynnfield moms raising their children through the town’s school district. Despite their kids’ ages, they are strictly forbidden from the kitchen on dough and baking days.
“They’re funny. On bake days they’ll be scavenging outside the rooms being like, ‘Is there any bread today, Mom? Can we get a chocolate loaf?’” Yagjian said.
Since the beginning, their mission at Fire & Flour has been “education,” Yagjian said. As they look toward the future, they want to help other people learn how to bake their own bread.
“It’s been very rewarding,” Viscarello said.
“Mistakes are OK,” Yagjian advises future bakers. “You have to be willing to fail forward… You’re never going to be ready, so you kind of just have to do things.”
