The Traveling Baker

The iconic image of an iconic bread, by an iconic photographer. I’ve been musing on baguettes after introducing them to our market customers over the past couple weekends and I’ve put some thoughts below:

The baguette sits counter to most of my ideas on bread. I bake large, heavy loaves with dark flours—breads packed with nutrition, but also speaking to the traditional breads of the country side. The bread of farmers, peasants and labourers.

Baguettes were born in the basement brick ovens of Paris, and in it’s pure and original form it is a beautiful symbol of the ideal city. As such it has become a cornerstone in the diet, not only of parisians, but of people across the world. Interestingly the peasants of France were originally suspicious of the long skinny bread that their city counterparts cherished. The contrast between the earthy traditional peasant loaves and the airy baguette make it seem otherworldly and in comparison, quite odd.

It was truly a city bread, historically and for me personally. I learned to bake them at the Italian Bakery in Victoria, rushing around early in the morning, rolling countless baguettes to for our daily customers and wholesale orders. They say it takes 3000 baguettes until you learn the proper shaping method, and I did well over in my time at that bakery. In Vancouver I brought the baguette with me when I worked for Florin Moldovan at Beyond Bread, the former Transylvanian Peasant. Vancouverites, in a city a nearly devoid of good bread, and definitely devoid of a good baguette, responded fanatically.

When I returned the the island and built up the bakery on my parents farm, it didn’t seem right to bake baguettes. I am using whole grains sourced within a couple kilometers and stone milling them for a bread that is in a way, about trying to remember the way life was before the industrialization of bread.

However, the beauty of the baguette is incredibly alluring— the deep diamond/teardrop like cuts, and the thick, cracked crust that sings when pulled from the oven make it a bread that is fascinating to make. The time and energy that goes into making a great baguette go beyond what a sensible baker would attempt. That is why there are so many mediocre baguettes out there, because to make a really great baguette takes so much time and energy that the baker needs to be caught up in a nearly destructive search for perfection. For better or worse, I think I may have caught the fever behind making a perfect baguette, and for me, it will be one that marries the country side with the demands of the urban.

(via museumstudies)