Our Daily Bread

[Peter B Wolf]

This is a book review. Site listed below.

When you read this you wonder if this could be done here in the US.

".............the most interesting bread story in all of France. A few years ago, in the inland Normandy region known as La Perche, a refugee from one of the big industrial bakeries took over a small mill. He recruited local farmers to plant traditional varieties of wheat, and then recruited local bakers from around the region to follow a single recipe. Now, every day, more than a hundred stores bake the baguette du Perche, a delicious rope of bread that is rebuilding some of the frayed ecological and economic infrastructure of this corner of France. The central government has helped the process, mostly by granting the makers an A.O.C. certificate—the appellation d'origine controlee mark previously reserved for wines and cheeses. It means this bread can only be made in this place with these ingredients, and it has spurred a fierce local pride. For after all, we eat not only with our tongues but with our minds as well. ......."

And here is the rest of the story, ( well, the beginning too ) :

http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/003/1.12.html

[Fat Guy]

The book in question is "Good Bread is Back: A Contemporary History of French Bread, the Way It is Made, and the People Who Make It," by Steven Laurence Kaplan. The reviewer seems not to be particularly well informed. He doesn't even seem to acknowledge that the author, Steven Kaplan, is arguably the pivotal figure in the revival of French artisanal bread. And comments like "it is either badly written or badly translated (or both)" are not particularly helpful.