Bread is a staple, a seemingly humble foundation for many meals. Bread production is a millennia-old endeavor, and in some ways it's taken that long to perfect the art of creating artisan bread. As The Week defines it, artisan bread is that which has been handmade of high-quality ingredients without the assistance of technology. Well, as you can imagine, with that comes some challenges. It's the ability to overcome these challenges that makes bakers masters at their craft — in other words, true artisans.