Asked what it takes to be a great baker, Jean-Luc Poujauran (himself at the top of the baking chain) reportedly answered “Il faut être grand, fort, et bête.” Translation? You must be big, strong and stupid. So goes the story, as told by another great baker, Ian Lowe....
St. Honore is the signature loaf I was gifted when at Pierre Ragot's boulangerie Maison St. Honore in Marseille. It's basically a campagne style bread, with wheat and rye. Going through some bread notes I found some that fit the character of St. Honore style, I mixed...
Time is precious and sometimes hard to get a grasp of. So I recently attempted the infamous 3 step detmolder method of building a rye levain in three steps, it was definitely a challenge. I studied the process from German bread blogs, while using Apiece of...
What made Lyon special was there was real bread, freshly baked and delicious. One in fact was Boulangerie Pozzoli, which my chef Jean Michel Bergounoux told me about years ago. And in the old quarter of town across the river, Boulangerie du Palais, has a constant line...
August is the month when I travel worldwide to seek out bakers and chefs. Unfortunately, like me, a lot of them are out traveling on their vacation, as well. Lucky for me, Marseille's Maison St. Honoré, I found baker Pierre Ragot hard at work. He kindly welcomed me...
Baking bread is second nature to me, all but at work... mercurial temperatures, staff, and time can get the better of my skills, where I decided to not even try, till I hit on some good yeast and fermentation this year. Trick is to let the fermentation take it's...
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