Meet the Chef and Her 16-Year-Old Sourdough Starter Who've Worked in Kitchens Around the World

After nearly 30 years working in professional kitchens around the world, Chef Karla Mendoza has finally come home. And she didn’t come alone.

Drawing from a career that took her through international kitchens, including Pizzeria Mozza, where she worked with acclaimed American chef and restaurateur Nancy Silverton, Chef Karla has launched Crafted Sourdough in Manila.

Her latest venture offers traditional sourdough loaves and a lineup of savory sourdough focaccias, all handmade through a meticulous three-day process. What makes her bread even more special isn’t simply the toppings or the lengthy preparation. It’s the years of experience, discipline, and knowledge behind every loaf.

And at the heart of it all is a rather unusual traveling companion.

Everyone, meet Brooke—named after the main character from One Tree Hill, it is Chef Karla’s 16-year-old sourdough starter.

For the unfamiliar, sourdough relies on a living culture of wild yeast and bacteria, commonly called a starter, to ferment the dough. Unlike commercial yeast, which comes ready to use, a sourdough starter requires ongoing care and feeding to keep its microorganisms active.

Chef Karla created Brooke in 2010 and has kept her alive ever since, bringing her from

country to country throughout her international career. Brooke has even shared hotel rooms with her. Well, yes, Chef Karla travels with her sourdough starter.

It is an amusing tidbit, but it also says a lot about the discipline involved in sourdough baking. Keeping a starter healthy requires attention, patience, and regular maintenance, depending on how it is stored. And for Chef Karla, that commitment has lasted 16 years and counting.

And Brooke’s legacy continues. She now has an offspring, appropriately named “Baby Jane Dough.”

Good bread takes time. And Chef Karla doesn’t believe in rushing the process. Every sourdough focaccia at Crafted Sourdough takes three days to prepare, beginning with feeding the starter, followed by mixing the dough, and allowing it to undergo slow fermentation overnight.

According to Chef Karla, the extended fermentation helps develop flavor and makes the bread easier to digest. She also mixes her dough by hand to avoid overworking it and producing a tough texture. The process requires patience, careful timing, and an understanding of how dough behaves as it ferments.

And much of her inspiration comes from Pizzeria Mozza, where she worked with Nancy Silverton, the celebrated chef known for her work in artisanal baking and Italian cuisine. “I could eat the pizza at Mozza daily because of the texture we were getting due to the multi-day process," she shares.

It was that particular texture she wanted to achieve with her own bread.

“So I wanted my sourdough to get that kind of result, that’s why the slow fermentation process.”

The sourdough eventually became more than a passing interest. She recalls spending time developing her bread during a period of lockdown and isolation, when the long process of making sourdough provided something productive to occupy her days.

It started out as a personal baking project that eventually became Crafted Sourdough.

What’s fascinating about watching Chef Karla work is to see how much of baking comes down to repetition. Recipes and measurements provide a foundation, but after doing something hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times, an experienced baker develops an instinct for knowing when something is right or wrong.

We witness this firsthand when she pulls the Potato, Leek Sourdough Focaccia out of the oven. With one look, Chef Karla can tell the middle isn’t fully baked—something only a seasoned baker can do.

She pointed to the center to show us what she meant. What took her only a glance required an actual demonstration for our team to understand. Here was a chef who could identify something us normal folks couldn’t see, simply because she had done it so many times before.

Maybe precision in cooking isn’t always about following measurements to the last ingredient. It’s also about developing the judgment to know when something needs adjusting. And that kind of instinct only comes with experience. As Chef Karla puts it, there should be room to “measure with your heart.”

While the three-day fermentation forms the foundation of Crafted Sourdough’s breads,

Chef Karla’s background as a savory chef becomes apparent in her selection of focaccia toppings.

For purists, there’s the Sea Salt and Rosemary Focaccia (P500), a classic 10-inch round that lets the bread itself take center stage. For something familiar, there’s the Puttanesca Focaccia, topped with cherry tomatoes, red onions, capers, garlic confit, thyme, and anchovies. It brings together briny, savory, and aromatic ingredients in one bread.

Then there’s the Fiorentina Focaccia (P750), combining spinach, tomatoes, garlic, red onions, and Jack cheese; and the Everything Bagel with Scallion Cream Cheese Focaccia (P600) that plays with familiar breakfast flavors. This eight-inch round takes inspiration from the popular “everything bagel” seasoning from Trader Joe's, except that she makes her own seasoning from scratch.

And for those looking for something heartier, there’s the Potato, Leek, and Bacon Focaccia (P750), combining the mild sweetness of leeks, the richness of bacon, and the comforting addition of potatoes.

Beyond focaccia, Crafted Sourdough also offers a 900-gram Sourdough Loaf (P500) for those who prefer a more traditional loaf.

It’s an interesting selection that goes beyond the usual, and rather than treating focaccia as a side piece to a meal, Chef Karla gives it enough character for it to become a centerpiece.

After spending much of her professional life abroad, Chef Karla is now based in the Philippines.

“I’m back for good,” she confirms, although she continues to spend almost half her time in Hong Kong working on culinary projects.

Her homecoming doesn’t mean leaving her international career behind. Instead, it gives her an opportunity to continue that work while building something closer to home—with Brooke on her side, of course.

You may order by messaging Crafted Sourdough on Instagram, or by filling out the form in the link in their bio.