For decades, Indian women have been kneading out puffy Rotis, a tortilla-like flatbread, by hand. Now, a machine aims to churn out the Indian staple, one click at a time.

While eating bread may be the great cross-cultural common denominator, the art of bread making divides those who can from those who cannot. At a lefse-making party, my friend Paurvi Bhatt noticed that ...