Where to find the best cakes in South Bay: Noga Breed Co.

Many things had to go very badly for Noga Breed Co. to be a success. The bakery led by Lee Begim and Avi Sabag sets a store in Torrance, in an emerging morning market that appears twice a week. But before lines for their crossings full of Merguez, sticky buns and quotation chocolate cookies, the two had to navigate a pandemic, a war and a flood.

Originally from Los Angeles, Begim attended the culinary school in New York City, worked in an excellent meal, then got a job in a bakery in San Pedro after returning home during the 2020 closures. He finished in Tel Aviv later to collect a two -year airline ticket for a wedding that was canceled during the pandemic.

He stayed with the family in Tel Aviv and spent months bouncing through Europe and the Middle East. He visited friends and finally got a job in a pastry with Japanese influence in Tel Aviv.

During the pandemic, Sabag also booked a trip ticket to Tel Aviv from Atlanta. She had a friend who had just moved there, and her professional organizing company gave her the flexibility to travel. Like Begim, he spent weeks at the same time visiting friends in Europe, Morocco and the Middle East. Finally, he found Tel Aviv, opening a restaurant for the restorer based on plants Matthew Kenney. Begim lived on the other side of the restaurant street, it was often stopped for a protein shake after the gym.

“It would be in the bar and we both spoke English, and that evolved where we are now,” says Sabag. “We were not destined to be there.”

The couple received an apartment in Noga, an agricultural area of ​​Moshav or Cooperativa in the center-south of Israel, where residents can help themselves to whatever they are growing in the neighborhood. Emerging meals began to house lunch and elaborate tasting menus of seven dishes, using what they were from their community.

“There were limits, every grass and citrus, grenades, figs,” says Sabag. “You feel that you are in a storybook. We would base the menu of whatever in season and the rest we would get from shuk or just out of farmers. ”

Sabag and Begim had a large emerging window planned for October 7, 2023. Two weeks spent promoting dinner, and their two parents had planned trips to visit the couple and meet for the first time. That morning, Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and kidnaping around 250 hostages.

“Israel was closed in a way you've never seen,” says Sabag.

A selection of cakes from Noga Breed Co., which includes chocolate crosss, smooth and cross sausage crosss.

(Avi Sabag)

Their newcomer families were trapped in the 40 -square -meter apartment. Nothing was open. Their parents told them to return to the United States, but their life, family, friends and business were in Noga. They stayed for another six months while the companies around them closed.

“It was scary, mysterious and devastating,” says Sabag. “Meanwhile, our friends and families are fighting in the army and we are reviewing WhatsApp messages to see what is happening. We still had some reservations, but nothing felt the same. “

In February 2024, it rained for 14 consecutive days. The building where the couple lived was not properly sealed, and the walls were flooded with water, which makes the mold grow on each surface of the apartment. After losing almost all their possessions, the couple left Israel to keep Begim's family in Los Angeles, with plans to move to Florida and bring their emerging dinners back.

“We never arrived in Florida,” says Sabag. “All the plans we have made do not happen. We only laugh. “

They tried to open a restaurant in Los Angeles, but after two months of negotiating the lease, the couple learned that the owner intended to tear down the building. His next step was to ensure a production kitchen instead, and organized their first emerging window of Noga Breed Co. Bakery in September.

Noga means “morning light” in Hebrew, and the bakery is the couple's shape to honor the time and life they built in Israel with the love of baking Begim inclined during the pandemic.

The seasonal focaccia was recently offered in the emerging window of Noga Breed Co. in Torrance.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

They found a semi -permanent house in the enclave, a shopping center and retail in Torrance, where they appear every Wednesday and Saturday morning. On Tuesdays, Begim visits the Torrance farmers market, then plans its menu for the week.

On a recent Saturday, they filled a table with sweet and tasty cakes. The Danish cheese looked like flourishing flowers with drinking supreme sunset in a pastry cream center with a Thai rate aroma. The sugar crystals shone on the ginger wave cookies made with a deep and rich rye flour. There were slices of thread tea cake, three varieties of crossings and bread breads.

A rectangle of Focaccia was almost hidden under a vibrant pesto of the green arugula with sweet caramelized leeks, flakes of Chile, lemon peel curls and tablespoons of rich beaten ricotta. Parmigian -regian spots covered bread as snow.

Begim ferments the dough for 72 hours and the grains is molded. Focaccia is a combination of rye, spelling and whole wheat, which gives bread a complex flavor and nut with a slight flavor.

Mica the hard red wheat and kamut berries for their crossings, then regrets the dough with good French butter that you can smell and taste. The crosss have gold and cracked shells that fracture in butter fragments.

The croissant full of lamb -mergic has a flavor profile that reminds the couple their old house. Begim makes its own sausage and combines it with roasted red peppers, Harissa and Kashkaval whipped cheese. Empatuates what calls its “spicy seed mixture” on the top, with nigella, poppy, fennel and sesame seeds that it provides in a pan.

Noga Breead Co. chocolate cookie is made with three types of flour and two types of chocolate pieces.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

Begim accumulates its croissant mass to make sticky buns, with fillings that turn according to what is in the farmers market. In a recent Saturday morning, there were thick and spongy buns full of a caramel made of California dates. The fruit was wonderfully scathing with caramel and caramel notes, but not too sweet. Above, he spread a crispy almond granola.

Chocolate cookies, made with oatmeal, whole wheat and multipurpose flour, rival the cookie that I previously declared the best in Los Angeles. They are beautifully wrinkled with large chocolate rocks in a chewable environment.

While every week's offerings will change, Sabag said that he can always count on Croissants, a sweet Danish, sticky, focaccia and cookies.

The couple has found a space in the center of San Pedro, where they hope to open a bakery and a cafeteria with breakfast and lunch.

“I am very excited to have a space to have our community, where you can sit down and SchMooze and laugh and see families,” says Sabag. “We grew up in large families from the Middle East in very long tables, so this is the complete circle. In the background, we are great hosts. “

His goal is to open the bakery in six months, but Sabag laughs and says he knows better than making an established plan.

Whatever happens in my world, I will make sure that the universe returns me to those sticky buns.