IT'S THE BREAD, STUPID by Armen Pandola
I love bread. So, my luckiest day was the day I was born in the best bread city in the US - the capital of hoagies, cheesesteaks and bread - Philadelphia. As any native Philadelphian will tell you, the first two are dependent on the third. You cannot have a good hoagie or cheesesteak without good bread.
In Philadelphia, serving good bread is a must - not just to put something inside it, but at restaurants and eateries all over the city. Like most things that are really good in a place, the good get better and the better get to be the best. After eating good bread, you just won't tolerate anything less.
We use to get our bread from Buccelli's Bakery on 21st and Mckean Street (now closed - my father-in-law, Harry Dilks, was a baker there). Buccelli's is credited with making the first and maybe the best bread for a hoagie - the inside was soft but there was a nice crust on the outside. Other bakeries joined in making bread for sandwiches and each had its own unique properties: Amaroso, Cacia's, Faragalli's - too many to list. My favorite is and, since Buccelli's closed, has been Sarcone's. But I am often in places where good bread is a rarity - I don't come to Paris every month! So, I started to make my own bread. I was surprised that it often - not always - was edible.
As I was looking at my Paris schedule, my bread-starved eyes popped when I saw that Le Cordon Bleu, one of the greatest cooking and food management schools in the world, was offering a Bread Workshop - a six hour class with a Master Chef specializing in bread. I didn't hesitate and yesterday, I took the class.
Le Cordon Bleu (LCB) is located on the Left Bank in an area that is full of modern buildings - and LCB is in one of them. A few years ago, they opened their own cafe there - and if you are anywhere in the neighborhood, stop in for one of the best, reasonably priced lunches you will ever enjoy. I had just enough time for a café and a lemon meringue dessert. On the cloudy, rainy day I was there, the lemon tart was like eating sunshine.
The Bread Workshop, taught by Chef Olivier Boudot, is located in a professional kitchen where the usual bread courses are taught to LCB's students. Chef Boudot taught the course in French but the school provided a staff member who spoke excellent English to translate - there was never a problem.
During the course of our six hour workshop, Chef Boudot demonstrated making baguettes, country-style bread with roasted walnuts/figs and fougasse (foccachio). After demonstrating how to make each one, we were then given all the ingredients and had to make our own. It was a challenge. Chef Boudot was very patient and helped all of us, but, of course, what he made look easy, wasn't that easy. It was worth the time and cost (about $200.00) just to see a great chef work - I realized the dexterity needed to be a great chef - he's like an artist sculpting great bread not in stone, but in flour, water and yeast.
We made the baguettes by hand but used a mixer for the other two. Someone asked Chef Boudot if he preferred making bread by hand or machine. He asked back, if you have to go somewhere that's ten miles away, do you prefer to walk or ride? The mixing machine is, of course, absolutely necessary in the actual business of making bread so chefs have to learn how to use it.
Perhaps the most telling part of the workshop was Chef Boudot's constant emphasis on temperature. His constant companion was a thermometer, testing the temperature of the water, the batter - and he even had an Infrared Non-Contact Laser Digital Thermometer that he used to get the batter's temperature while it was in the mixer. He emphasized that you must adapt your recipe to the conditions and that the general formula for bread dough is - well, I'll give you the site that explains it for those interested - look here.
It is a great workshop and well worth the time even if you are in Paris for only a few days. Chef Boudot is very entertaining - he caresses his dough, explaining that you must come to love your dough and treat it like your baby. Someone asked him about gluten-free bread and he responded, "That's not bread." He went on to explain that there are many alternative or non-traditional breads and that each one had its own peculiarities and place in the world of bread.
At the end of the class, we graduated and received our diploma in bread making from Chef Boudot. It was a proud moment for all of us. For one day, we were chefs and shared a kitchen with a true artist.