The Saddest Thing I've Ever Heard

Last night I worked with our baking guru.  He is another one of these food people who fascinates me in that he has that kind of Zen-like (in the truest sense of the word, not in the way the commericial world has appropriated it) egoless devotion to a beautiful end result. 

He talks often about how making yeasted bread is essentially like starting a little civilization that you are then responsible for keeping healthy and alive.  And professional bakers keep their civilizations alive by waking up at ridiculously early hours so they can craft them into various baked goods for daily deliveries.

In short: this is a dude dedicated to bread.

So last night he tells me that his wife has developed a gluten allergy.  A GLUTEN ALLERGY.  I find this awful at almost Greek-tragedy level.