Baking Baguettes in Paris - The Afar Story

 

It was surprising, shocking, that in the depths of the recession I got a chance to travel to Paris and work in a boulangerie making baguettes. This was a long-held dream of mine, since I've been baking bread at home for a decade.

It came thanks to Afar magazine, which launched last month and highlights "experiential travel." Aside from my article, there's terrific reads on bog swimming in Wales, a piece about Berbers in Morocco, and oh yes, South African bunny chow -- a national dish. All in all, Afar is a kind of a hipster's National Geographic.

If you want to check out my article, here it is ("Time to Rise" pdf). In it, I recount my experience and explain why French bread went downhill for a long time before it came back in the early 1990s. (It also features Paris bakery recommendations by David Lebovitz, with whom I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon.) 

When I returned from Paris, I came up with a home-baked baguette that topped bakeries in DC in a blind tasting competition and caused a bit of a stir on the Net (see Bittman and Wild Yeast blog). The winning baguette recipe is here for those who want to try it, but it calls for a bit of sourdough starter. Happy baking.

- Samuel Fromartz

Comments

[Paul Fishkin]

Sam

Great story.

With the recent Julia Child movie (I've actually not seen it), I revisited her multipage formula for French Baguette in a home oven. It's a terrific story including a visit to Professor Calvel. The Am History Smithsonian in DC includes the original typed manuscript. This was the formula I used for my first bread, and I suspect many home bakers first learned from her TV show and books.

Interestingly, she used a triple rise in the ferment in a cool place, had a formula with and w/o poolish. Her husband figured out how to get a baking stone long before they were even thought of. It also appears her husband devoted the better part of a year on the subject, which I think typifies the way some people approach artisan baking.

There are way more people trying to make great bread at home than I think we realize.

All of this journalism is a wonderful addition to the bread culture

Paul Fishkin
Peoria Illinois

[Jacqueline]

Sam - I got the presser from the Afar PR team. I asked them to send me a copy so I could evaluate it myself. I was so pleased to open it and see you! What a great piece and a great magazine.

As I recently rediscovered bread baking, I've thought so many times about the parallels between baking and writing. You brought it home.