Peter Reinhart - The Bread Bakers Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

Copyright 2001 by Peter Reinhart
Photography 2001 by Ron Manville
Photographs by Aaron Wehner

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Prop styling by Linnea Leeming
Student assistants: Rina Hosaka, Alex Molnar, Jennifer Passarella, and Fumie Shibazaki

The is used with permission from the Wheat Foods Council.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Reinhart, Peter.
The bread bakers apprentice : mastering the art of extraordinary bread / Peter Reinhart.
p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN: 978-1-60774-129-9
1. Bread. I. Title.
TX769 .R4147 2001
641.815dc21
2001002285

v3.1

CONTENTS

The Twelve Stages of Bread:
Evoking the Fullness of Flavor from the Grain

The Final Grace Note:
Wood-Fired Baking in Bennett Valley

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Creating a book of this scope takes, it seems, more than a village, and so I have unabashedly drawn upon all of the villages in which Ive lived these past twenty years. Let me begin by thanking my wife, Susan, who endured yet another round of marathon writing bursts, supporting me with patience and lots of tea and vitamins.

The Ten Speed team has been fantastic at every level. Thanks begin with Publisher Kirsty Melville and Editorial Director Lorena Jones. Aaron Wehner, my editor, has been an exemplar of enthusiasm and sage guidance, proving again that behind every successful writer is a great (and over-worked) editor. Art Director Nancy Austin is not only talented but also great to work with, establishing a warm, collegial atmosphere and encouraging creative ferment. Ten Speeds enormous support for this project has, I believe, evoked from me the fullness of my potential. Thank you also to Andrea Chesman, Sharon Silva, Linda Bouchard, and Ken DellaPenta for expert copyediting, proofreading, and indexing, respectively.

Ron Manville poured his heart and soul into the photography. I was extremely fortunate, upon moving to Providence, to find someone so close to home who could capture in images the vision that was in my head. It was a joy to work with him. Our creative cabal was completed by Linnea Leeming, who brought us incredible energy and joy, along with her inventive prop styling.

Johnson & Wales University, my haven of the past two years, has also supported this project with great enthusiasm. Im especially indebted to Dean Karl Guggenmos, who allowed me to use the labs and classrooms for testing and photography, and to my department chair, Martha Crawford who, as a world-class competition pastry chef, truly understood the nature of this undertaking. Thanks also to Pamela Peters, the director of culinary education, for her unflagging support and consistently positive attitude. The universitys leadership team, including Dr. John Yena, John Bowen, Dr. Irving Schneider, Tom Wright, and Tom Farrell, sets a tone of inspiration and forward thinking. Assistant Public Relations Director, Linda Beaulieu, has been fantastic in helping me spread news of the bread revolution. A special thanks to my colleague Steve Kalble, a great teacher and one of the most passionate bread bakers Ive ever known. Thanks also to Ciril Hitz, pastry instructor and bread artiste, who taught me many shaping techniques even while he was in training for the 2002 Coupe du Monde competition. The entire faculty at Johnson & Wales inspires me with their commitment to education and their love of the transmission of knowledge. They are, collectively, my current mentors.

My students are also my teachers, but a few must be singled out for their special contributions, helping enormously with the photo shoot and covering for me on their own time when I was on crutches. Fumie Shibazaki (pictured on the cover), Alex Molnar, Jennifer Passarella, and Rina Hosaka make me proud to be a teacher.

Before Johnson & Wales I was nurtured at the California Culinary Academy where I first began my exploration of pain lancienne. While there, I was privileged to work with chefs Robert Parks, Reg Elgin, Tony Marano, Nick Snell, and many others, including Greg Tompkins, who is now doing great work for Starbucks. Thanks also to my former CCA student, Peter DiCroce, for his passion for pane siciliano that led to the breakthrough formula in this book.

Thank you to that unique fellowship known as the Bakers Dozen and its founders, Marion Cunningham and Flo Braker, along with my fellow bread chapter editors Fran Gage and Carol Field, and all the other chapter editors. After seven years of brainstorming and editorial meetings and countless recipe testing workshops, The Bakers Dozen Cookbook is coming out, amazingly, the same month as this book. I learned so much about baking and the love of baking by being a part of that group.

Three local Providence bakeries contributed their support and their loaves for some of the photos. Providence, like so many cities around the country, is experiencing the bread revolution through both old and new bakeries that are adopting the slow rise fermentation principles that are causing so much excitement. Thanks to Lynn Rammrath of Seven Stars Bakery, Olga Bravo of Olgas Cup and Saucer, and Mike Manni of LaSalle Bakery for making great bread and leading the way in bringing a new level of bread awareness to Providence.

The Bread Bakers Guild of America, as always, is at the heart of the knowledge contained in this book. Didier Rosada, Greg Mistell, Peter Franklin, Amy Scherber, Toy Dupree, and Craig Ponsford are among the hundreds of bakers who have influenced me and who have changed the bread landscape in America.

Thanks to Tim and Crystal Decker for letting me showcase them in these pages as examples of the next wave of great bakers. And we all owe a huge debt to Professor Raymond Calvel, who I hope is proud to know that he has fulfilled his mission and passed on his wisdom to an entire generation.

Lionel Poilne, Philippe Gosselin, and my Paris liaison, Stephanie Curtis, are the French trio who, unknowingly to any of us at the time, were the sparks that triggered this book. That trip would not have happened had it not been for Nick Malgieri and the James Beard Foundation who organized the competition that sent me on my pilgrimage.

There are more than 100 recipe testers to whom I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude. Most of them are members of the Bread Bakers List, an e-mail fellowship created by Reggie and Jeff Dwork that brings me a never-ending steady stream of knowledge. The following people voluntarily tested recipes and sent superb feedback that was essential for fine-tuning the formulas: Dena Allbee, Treece Ames, Burleigh Angle, Claire Banasiak, Lorraine Begley, Kevin Bell, Deborah Bergh, Bill Bowers, Terri Brooks, Bonni Lee Brown, Dawn Burstyn, Frank Cavalier, Taimi Clark, Bev Collins, Margaret Cope, Corky Courtright, Chris Dalrymple, Carolyn Dandalides, Kathy DeStudio, Barbara Edwards, Marilee Evans, Jill Farrimond, Ellen H.G. Fenster, Rosemary Finch, Natalie Fine, Cynthia Frederick, Jo Gould, Jim Gribble, Sharon Hale, Patty Hambelton, Lois Hansen, Dulcey Heller, Jane Helwig, Jenny Hensley, Bernice Hicks, Carolyn Hollenbeck, George Hower, Alan Jackson, Beth Jarvis, Claire Johnson, Keith Johnson, Mary Jo Kingston, Eve Kinney, Rhonda Kirschman, Pat Kleinberg, Jana Koca, Susan Kristof, Jim Lawler, Dorothea Lerman, Cindy Lewellen, Heidi Lisitsky, Les Lloyd, Charlene Magee, Alexandra Mahoney, Lindell Martin, Tuffy Mattox, Justin McAteer, Yvonne McCarthy, Lynne Miles, John Murren, Jill Myers, Erin Nesmith, Lorna Noble, Valerie Norton, Ed Okie, Larronna Payne, Charles D. Perry, Larry Peters, Bill Potere, Anne Ranish, Matt Ream, Heather Reseck, Joni Respasch, Dick and Willis Richards, Maureen Riley, Shauna Roberts, Wendy Robinson, Debbie Rogers, Joanne Sawyer, Barbara Schmitt, Pat Schuster, Dan Schwartz, Jackie Silberg, Philip Silverman, Amy Smereck, Bill Snider, Jennifer Somerville, Sherri Staat, Dawn Swindells, Donal Thacker, Susan Thomas, Maggie Tucker, Terry Vlassack, Rhea M. Vogelhut, Cynthia Ware, Diana Warshay, Jon Westfall, Jo Ann Wiese, Allan Wirth, Joan Wolckenauer, John Wright, Rita Yaezel, Tamera Yoakum, and Michael Zusman.