(OUR) MY DAILY BREAD
An off-centre essay, dedicated to all passionate artisan bread bakers, and especially to
Zoë François
and
William Wood
-
two inspirational pastry chefs I’ve met and who made me fall in love with bread.
I have felt bread dough in my hands for many years and loaf after loaf I couldn’t stop thinking how much the art of bread is like the art of love.
Bread baking is a wealth of passion and patience. There are moments when waiting is vital; there are moments when every rushing second counts.
Lovemaking feeds on passion and succeeds on patience and experience. There are times when waiting gets you further; there are times when you can't catch fast enough the flash...
A good bread baker knows that the secret of success is not a secret recipe. The secret is honesty. Use only honest ingredients and learn to feel the bread - it is alive. It feeds on love. It reacts to weather change. It is moody. It is snappy and it can spoil when you haven’t been paying attention.
Bread dough is like a woman that knows what she wants and a good baker is like an attentive lover – he can tell how to satiate and indulge her...
Good bread bakers know that bread shouldn’t be rushed and the slower it raises, the better taste and texture develops.
A caring tender lover is not afraid to take his time, for he knows that he will harvest the rewards of sensual devotion…
With time bread proves and develops its flavour.
With time a relationship ripens and matures.
Just like baking bread, love is like a preheated steamed oven and sooner or later we all get burnt.
And if you still haven’t put your hands into wet and sticky dough and shaped a bread, or never jumped into a deep love, here are the basic ingredients -
MY DAILY BREAD RECIPE:
Organic Baker’s Flour
Natural Sea Salt
Spring Water
Starter (Mother, Bigga, Poolish) or Yeast
Love
Passion
Patience