Frequently asked questions

1. Is Saidel's a bakery?

No. We are much more than that. The Saidel Jewish Baking Center (SJBC) is the foremost authority on Jewish artisan baking in the world, specializing in authentic Jewish breads. We provide training in all aspects of artisan Jewish bread baking and health. We consult, provide guidelines and train organizations, institutions and businesses who are developing an artisan baking process or artisan baked products. We design and develop innovative, exclusive, new products for our clients, restaurants, hotels, bakeries and institutions. We educate by means of a wide range of workshops, courses and lectures, targeted at every age and level. Finally, SJBC offers a "personal chef" service where we personally bake you something healthy and delicious.

2. How can I sample and buy your products?

SJBC is not like any regular bakery. We do not mass produce baked goods and sell them over the counter in any store. Instead, we have opted for the model of the "personal chef". You privately commission us to be your personal chef/baker and to prepare for you a variety of special items we are expert and exclusive in. This includes many items that we invented and developed ourselves and also a number of well-known traditional/ethnic items that are not available elsewhere In Israel You may find a list of these items on our website  Simply call us (09-7941222) or use our online form to privately commission us to prepare any number or quantity of the items on the list and we will personally prepare and deliver them fresh to your door. It is exactly the same as having a personal chef preparing the item in your own kitchen. Nothing is better than home prepared food and this is exactly that. The items are prepared by your personal baker according to your personal preferences, with the same tender loving care, freshness and health as if you prepared them yourself in your own kitchen for your family.

3. Why do you not have stores that sell your products?

Being a regular bakery and/or or selling our products through stores requires a compromise. You have to compromise on the freshness and on the health benefits of the product. Selling from a store requires prolonging the shelf life of the product and this can only be done using various chemicals and preservatives. SJBC believes that this compromise comes at too high a cost. We believe that food products should be fresh, straight out of the oven, directly to your table, made from only healthy, organic, nutritious ingredients. Using our "personal chef" model we achieve exactly that. The items are prepared in the morning and delivered to your door a few hours later. They are as fresh as fresh can be and therefore preservatives, additives or chemicals are unnecessary. This is the way food should be, fresh and healthy.

4. Where do you deliver to?

We are not a huge company with a huge logistics infrastructure. We are a tiny "mom & pop" operation of two people, preferring to keep it small and high quality rather than large and impersonal. Therefore we can deliver only in close proximity to our center here in Israel. We do not ship internationally. We do the baking and also the delivering ourselves (where else does the baker actually deliver his breads to you personally?) We can deliver to the following locations - Karnei Shomron, Raanana, Modiin, Bet Shemesh, Ramat Bet Shemesh and Jerusalem. If you are in or near to any of these locations we can deliver to you. We deliver directly to your door in any of these places (for a nominal delivery fee). In all the locations (except Jerusalem) we also have "pick-up" points where you may pick up your goodies yourself without paying the delivery fee. The list of these pickup points is -

Modiin, Buchman: Rose Scharlat, Rechov Naftali 13/6, 1st floor, Buchman, Tel: 058-7555527.
Bet Shemesh: Goldberg Family, Rechov Shivtei Yisrael 2/1 (Sheinfeld building #2), Tel: 02-991-9532.
Ramat Bet Shemesh: Shine Family, Nachal Alexander 1/1, cnr. Nachal Shimshon, Tel: 052-8888600.
Raanana, Ravutzky: Taback Family, Ravutsky 11 gimmel, Tel: 09-7413019.

5. What time do you deliver?

Delivery times depend on the season and workload in any specific week. During winter months delivery times are earlier than in summer months. On days where we have large order volumes, like before chagim, the amount of deliveries is larger and you may receive your delivery later than normal. All deliveries will be delivered in time for shabat/chag (and in time so the driver may return home before shabat/chag). Please read your email order confirmation to see what time we will be delivering.

6. Are you expensive?

When people think boutique, organic baking, personal chef, they think astronomical prices. We believe that healthy baked goods should also be affordable and ours are. For example you may simply commission us to make you 1 lonely bagel if you so wish, for only 5.5NIS. While our products are certainly more expensive than regular supermarket bread, they are also in a much higher class, both in quality and in health. Many people fool themselves into thinking that they are getting healthy bread, simply because it says "whole wheat" on the label. The market is flooded with scams and blatant misdirection, making you think what you are buying is really healthy when it is not. Our products are the real thing, with no compromises.

7. Is there a minimum order?

If you are picking up your order from one of our pickup points, there is no minimum order. If you are having a home delivery there is a minimum order. Call for details

8. I ordered online on your website. How do I know you received my order?

After you click the submit button on our order page, you order is processed automatically by our system and you will receive an order confirmation screen. If you do not receive this confirmation screen then there has been a glitch and your order was not recorded correctly by our system. Please wait 5 minutes and try again. If nothing works, call us at 09-7941222 to check if we received your order or not.

9. What is the latest I can order?

We usually shut down ordering around 6:00pm on Thursday night (the night before delivery). Remember, after we receive your order we still have to bake the items and there are only 12 hours in a night. If it is later than 6:00pm try calling us at 09-7941222 to see if we can still accept your order telephonically.

10. There are items on your order page in red that I cannot specify an amount for. Why?

Items in red on our order form cannot be ordered for that specific week - due to shortage of raw materials etc. Check back the following week for availability.

11. Where are you located?

Our center is located in Karnei Shomron, about 15 minutes drive from Kfar Sava, or the Chorshim exit on Route 6. Our address (for WAZE) is HaHadas 22, Karnei Shomron.

12. Do I have to come to you to do a course or workshop?

We conduct courses and workshops here at our center, but we also do them at any location that you require. We routinely do workshops at peoples' homes, at companies, halls, etc. We even once did a workshop on the deck of a cruise boat in the middle of the Kinneret.

13. Can I do a different workshop than those listed on your website?

We are experts in tailor making a workshop to your own requirements, like combining elements of different workshops into one, altering the time frame, structuring the workshop around your event schedule, like a bat mitzvah party, for example. Please call 09-7941222 for information about upcoming scheduled workshops and to discuss how we can tailor make a workshop just for you.

14. Is there a minimum number of people required for a workshop?

It is not financially viable for us to do a workshop for less than a minimum amount of people in a group. This varies depending on the type of workshop. Call us at 09-7941222 for more details.

15. Is there different pricing for adult and kids/family workshops?

Yes. Kids/Family workshops cost less than adult workshops. Call us at 09-7941222 for our latest price list.

16. Where can I hear Les Saidel speak/lecture?

Master artisan baker and CEO of the Saidel Jewish Baking Center and Machon Lechem Hapanim, Les Saidel, is a popular speaker on the lecture circuit and a guest speaker at many community and public events. You may book him for your own event or gathering by calling 09-7941222. You may also read Les' monthly column in the Jerusalem Post "In-Jerusalem" and "Metro" supplements, published on Fridays. Click here for a list of articles published. Les also publishes a weekly shiur on Parshat Hashavua in the Jewish Press. Click here for a list of the shiurim.

17. Do you make anything gluten-free?

In order to obtain gluten free certification you need a separate facility that manufactures only gluten free items. We do not have a separate facilities - all our baking is done in our one facility. We do make a number of items that have very low gluten, like oats flour products, but it is not a 100% gluten free environment. If you are celiac, our products are not suitable for you. If you are simply gluten intolerant they are.

18. What is your allergen info?

Each item on our order page has full ingredient info. In general, all our products contain gluten or traces of gluten. Many of our products contain sesame seeds. Some contain hazelnuts and walnuts. There are therefore traces of sesame, walnuts and hazelnuts in our bakery. If you are allergic to any of these we recommend that you do not use our products.

19. If you are a healthy bakery why do you use margarine in some of your products?

See my blog article.


20. What hechsher (kosher certification) do you have?

Our center and bakery are completely pareve. Our hechsher is Mehadrin. All our ingredients are badatz, either Eda Haredit, Landau, Rubin, Bet Yosef or Chatam Sofer Bnei Brak. The actual supervision is provided by a mashgiach from the Karnei Shomron Rabbanut, who is present daily. All procedural standards are badatz standards - for example sifted flour must be used within 4 hours of sifting or be resifted. During the year of Shmita, all our produce is Yevul Nochri. The phone number of our mashgiach is 052-7203569 (Tzvi Frish). See here for our teuda.

Click here to change code - Please enter the code displayed in the box below
Processing request....