Heath and Marlo Wendell founded Houston-based Slow Dough Bread Co. in 2009. The idea was a commitment to making bread “the right way” via slow fermentation and a few high-quality ingredients. They combined Heath Wendell’s knowledge from the four previous generations of bakers in his family with the education he received in Europe and tailored all of that to fit the tastes of Texas. In the beginning, there was definitely a commitment to artisan, upscale breads. 

“When Heath started, he said he would never make hamburger buns,” said Andrew Sanchez, vice president of operations and sales, who runs the day-to-day business operations now. “Two months in, one of his biggest customers asked for hamburger buns … now it’s one of our top-selling products.” 

The bakery has 400 SKUs that it creates out of 50 doughs. If it’s bread, Sanchez said they probably make it: ciabatta, sourdough, baguette, burger buns, pretzels and more. The bakery even has a line of vegan products. And every item has one of the bakery’s signature starters in it: a biga or a levain they’ve had for their entire 15-year history. 

“We slowly ferment all of our doughs, whether that’s a bulk ferment or the starter fermenting in the cooler overnight,” Sanchez said. “We even put it in our sliced bread as a point of differentiation. That’s our signature, and we’re not going to do no-time dough. That’s what made us unique in the beginning, and it still sets us apart.”

Heath Wendell comes from a long line of bakers. His great-great-grandfather, Adam Schmitt, opened the first family bakery in 1886 in Weisloch, Germany. Adam’s son Carl Schmitt immigrated to the United States and opened a bakery in Chicago, which his son Henry — Heath’s grandfather — grew. Henry Schmitt opened Deerfield Bakery in 1972, where Heath Wendell’s mother also worked, and Heath got his first taste for baking. 

In his 20s, Heath Wendell worked in a French bakery in Paris where he learned traditional European baking skills, which were instrumental to Slow Dough’s founding. Heath Wendell has elevated his family’s recipes with his European training and adapted them to its Texan consumers. 

“Our pretzels are a good example of this,” Sanchez explained. “Heath learned pretzels in Europe and tried to sell his incredibly authentic pretzels in the US, but they didn’t do as well because it wasn’t the pretzel Americans were expecting. Add some butter and sugar, and now it’s one of our top items.”

The bakery sells a 13-oz pretzel because as Sanchez puts it, “everything is bigger in Texas,” and it sells well at the TDECU Stadium at the University of Houston. The best-selling limited-time offering, he said, is most likely the company’s new jalapeño pretzel that it started offering at the stadium. 

“At the beginning of the season, the regular pretzel was outselling the jalapeño, but by the end of the football season, that had flipped,” Sanchez said. 

Over the years, the bakery has compromised to meet customer needs such as making hamburger buns or adding natural shelf life extenders, but Sanchez was adamant that slow fermentation is the line the bakery won’t cross. Even as the bakery has become semi-automated, the company hasn’t struggled with incorporating fermentation into the production process because it’s all the team has known. Production Manager Jassiel Ramirez has been with Slow Dough since 2009 and was trained by Heath Wendell. He handles all the hiring of the production team and trains them in the Slow Dough way. 

“We don’t recruit experienced bakers,” Sanchez explained. “Our production manager brings in people who he can mold to make bread our way.” 

Sanchez himself is not a baker by trade but has a degree in business from Baylor University. He knew he always wanted to work in the food industry but was unsure of what to do outside of restaurant work. A Houston native, he reached out to his father asking for advice. His father had just seen a local news story on Slow Dough and suggested that Sanchez reach out about a job. 

“I went to the bakery in my suit and tie, and I asked for a chance,” he said. “Heath tried to turn me away, but I insisted that I could do something with the business.” 

Sanchez went to work learning the products, every department and every job. He developed relationships with customers, added more and learned Spanish to better communicate with the staff. With that dedication, he earned Heath Wendell’s trust, and a few years ago, the owner took a step back and handed the day-to-day business and operation decisions to Sanchez. 

“This is my baby,” Sanchez said. “I’ve loved being a part of it, the freedom to fail, try and learn. We’ve brought in a lot of people who have upped the level of professionalism while still maintaining our early passion. But we’ve been able to do that at a larger scale now.” 

As the company has needed to produce at a larger scale, it has made the move to a semi-automated process. When the Wendells first started the bakery, they were working out of a 2,000-square-foot warehouse with one mixer, one oven and no air-conditioning or heat. In 2011, demand had outpaced capacity, and the bakery moved to a 10,000-square-foot facility with two deck ovens, two rack ovens and a few more mixers. Three years later, Slow Dough found itself in the same place. Thankfully, Whole Foods was looking to sell its bakery that supplied desserts to its stores in the region — with bakery equipment included.

“It felt perfect for us,” Sanchez said. 

In addition to equipment, the 40,000-square-foot facility had 10,000 square feet of freezer space across three freezers, which also allowed Slow Dough to expand into frozen products. While the company remains committed to fresh restaurant deliveries, Sanchez knows that frozen is how the company will grow. He estimates direct-to-restaurant business is 70% of the company’s business while 25% goes to distributors and 5% is foodservice. 

“The majority of our revenue is still from our direct-store-delivery (DSD) business, but that is flat,” Sanchez explained. “There’s not as much growth because there are only so many restaurants in South Texas interested in the high-end product that we offer. Frozen is where the majority of the growth is.” 

Through the frozen business, Slow Dough has expanded into the Southeast and East Coast. The company is slowly moving to the Midwest with customers in Nashville, Chicago and even Denver.  

Investing in equipment has always been tricky because of the commitment to slow fermentation and the delicate cell structure that develops. Sanchez described their approach to equipment purchases as “mindful.” 

“Ciabatta can’t go through a piston divider, or you will destroy everything you built into the dough,” he said. “It’s an interesting balance because we can stray from slow dough if we abuse the bread with the wrong divider or even the wrong oven. We’re mindful of it, but we’re not shying away from it.” 

He noted that equipment supplier companies have become more mindful of how product interacts with their machines. 

“Thirty years ago, it was all speed and efficiency,” he said. “But as the macro trends are moving toward natural and quality, OEMs are recognizing that too.”

This article is an excerpt from the February 2025 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Slow Dough Bread Co., click here.