A unified synthetic strategy to the Cryptocarya family of natural products has been achieved employing four-component fragment unions in a "single flask" exploiting Anion Relay Chemistry (ARC). Functionalization of the ARC adducts permits rapid construction of five polyhydroxylated di- and tetrahydropyrone natural products of the Cryptocarya class (1-5), in a total of 7-9 steps from commercially available materials.