Bakers’ yeast reduces esters of 2-alkyl-3-oxobutanoic acid (CH3COCHRCO2R′; R=methyl, ethyl, propyl, propargyl, and allyl) into the corresponding (S)-hydroxy esters with exclusive stereoselectivity, while the configuration at the 2-position of the hydroxy esters is either S (anti) or R (syn) depending on the structure of the alkoxyl group in the carboalkoxyl moiety of the ester. Oftenly, the stereoselectivity