About Anna

Prior to founding Breads from Anna®, Anna Sobaski was an artist and teacher. She experienced first-hand the debilitating discomfort and fatigue associated with Celiac Disease and the difficulty in finding a tasty and nutritious gluten-free bread. With the double whammy of having diabetes, and being a lover of all things food, her personal goal was to develop gluten-free bread with both the taste and nutrition of a whole wheat bread. Friends and family soon began asking for the mix, and the journey began. Interested in the concept of food as medicine, and believing that there should be a way to make healthful food taste great, Anna attended and graduated from the Natural Gourmet Cookery School Institute for Food and Health in New York City, the premier institute for learning about food as medicine. 

Chef Anna’s first baking mix, the Original Gluten, Soy, Nut, and Rice Free Bread Mix, was introduced in 2004. As her business began to grow she found that many people with Celiac Disease also had other food allergies they needed to manage. In response, Anna has developed a complete line of 12 baking mixes that are sold on-line and in hundreds of stores and bakeries all over the world. 

Today Anna puts her passion for helping people enjoy a gluten and allergen-free lifestyle by further developing her mixes and traveling the country teaching gluten and allergen-free cooking classes and workshops. She has been featured in many of the industry’s premier magazines and speaks at conferences, support groups and health food stores. She is known within the industry for her pioneering work developing tasty and nutritious gluten- and allergen-free products. 

Breads from Anna products are manufactured in a USDA certified and Kosher facility in Iowa City, IA, and are endorsed by the Celiac Disease Foundation, the Celiac Sprue Association of North America, the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center, The University Of Maryland Center for Celiac Research, and Columbia University Dietitians, among others. 

As an artist, Anna’s medium was photography. You will see her art on display in the company’s product photography. 
 


In her own words, here is why Anna does what she does.

For many years I suffered from, among other feelings of discomfort, a stifling feeling of fatigue. It was not until a rash appeared on my elbows, however, that a dermatologist told me no more gluten. My doctor also told me I would not be able to do the diet, that, in all his years of practice, the only patient he had ever seen stick to the diet was an 83 year old woman from England I guessed the implication was older people from England do not care about food.

That statement did not sit well with me. Having been diagnosed, at that point, for 26 years with type-one diabetes, my first thought was, “Don’t tell me I cannot do this diet”.

Even though I started out accepting the challenge, I soon came to realize I was facing a very big loss. What became clear fairly quickly was that food, eating out and feeding family and friends was more central to my life than I had realized.

[My brother's] response and I quote: "What's the big deal? It tastes like bread."

"Exactly," I thought, "that is the big deal!"

After trying to make the best of it, which included giving up eating all gluten-free bread, not eating out much and not being invited to eat with family and friends as often as I previously had, I decided my life required an all out change. I attended the Natural Gourmet Institute which held the key philosophy that food and health are connected and that a special diet does not mean deprivation. Bread, being the staple food most people, including myself, went without, I set out to create a gluten-free yet nutritious and tasty bread that others, including myself, could enjoy.

I set up shop in the upstairs loft of my brothers business, I got to work collecting the unique ingredients needed for making my first loaf of bread. After many test runs, I eventually pulled out a steamy, fresh smelling loaf of bread. The ultimate taste tester, my brother who is not celiac. His response and I quote: "What's the big deal? It tastes like bread." "Exactly," I thought, "that is the big deal!" 

That's what put me on the path to my current life, which is feeding others by creating delicious, healthy, gluten-free breads as well as recipes that are easy to prepare: offering healthy alternatives to gluten.