KANSAS CITY, KS — Mark S. Friend, co-founder of Farm to Market Bread Co., passed away January 23. He was 68 years old. Friend was born Dallas and began his vocation of baking in seventh grade at a donut shop across the back alley from his home. In 1979, he moved to Kansas City, where he later started a family and graduated from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

After years as a pastry chef, Friend became the plant manager for Pacific Baking Enterprises in 1987.  Pacific Baking sent him to Monterey Baking Co. in Monterey, CA to learn how to bake Sourdough under Claudio Cantore. In 1992, he became Pacific Baking’s head of R&D and later became technical service manager for Chr. Hansen’s Labs, where he provided technical assistance and consulting to more than 100 bakeries nationally for FloraPan, a series of four pure strain lactobacillus cultures from Chr. Hansen.

Friend led workshops on sourdough cultures and sourdough production at AIB International and at the American Association of Cereal Chemists’ annual convention. He was also a founding member of the Bread Baker’s Guild, where he organized and presented at the Guild’s Sourdough Seminar, featuring international sourdough bread experts Dr Sugihara, Dr Brümmer, and Prof. Calvel, following the 1993 International Baking Industry Exhibition in Las Vegas.