Mary Claire Langston

Mary Claire Langston grew up in a small farmhouse kitchen outside of Macon, Georgia, where her grandmother kept a sourdough starter on the counter year-round — right next to the butter dish and the sweet tea pitcher. She didn't know it was remarkable. She thought everybody's kitchen smelled like that. It wasn't until she left for college and tried to replicate her grandmother's biscuits that she realized sourdough was a living thing that needed tending, not a recipe you could just write down and follow. That realization sent her on a thirty-year journey into the science and soul of fermented bread. Mary Claire trained at the Tennessee Culinary Institute and spent eight years baking professionally — first at a small artisan bakery in Chattanooga, then running the bread program at a farm-to-table restaurant in Nashville. She's been writing about food and fermentation since 2009, contributing to regional food publications across the South and building a loyal following of home bakers who trust her the same way she trusted her grandmother: completely. In 2019, she inherited her grandmother's original sourdough starter — the same culture her grandmother had kept alive since the early 1970s, passed down from a neighbor who brought it over from Eastern Tennessee. Mary Claire still feeds it every morning before her coffee gets cold. She lives in Nashville with her husband Dale and their two grown kids. Her kitchen counter currently holds three active starters, a jar of homemade hot honey, and a cast iron skillet that hasn't been washed with soap since 2003.