When America’s leading baking magazine, Bake from Scratch, asks you to contribute a story on how bread baking has changed in Paris in recent years, you not only jump at the chance, you jump ensuring you have an appetite for the nibbling you’ll do while researching!
If you read the food and dining chapter in my book The New Paris, you’ve had a solid introduction into the symbolic role of bread on Parisian tables, at home and in restaurants, and how a handful of bakers worked to make hearty loaves made from sourdough and ancient grains a real companion to any meal, not merely a side affair. In Beyond the Baguette, published in Bake from Scratch Magazine’s French issue (March / April 2019), I take it a bit further and look at a wide range of bakers who weren’t about to let the tradition and art of bread making become a cultural footnote due to mediocrity and mass production and have pioneered a spirited bread revival.
In case you need more enticing, the issue also features kitchen tours and interviews with David Lebovitz and Dorie Greenspan, incredible cake recipes from my dear friend Frank Barron (also known as Cake Boy Paris!),…
