The Artisanal Diet - part 2
By Bruce Cole - Published 04.07.04
After draining your precious and perfect artisan espresso, there's nothing like a slice of artisan toast to begin your day with. Toast is practically the perfect food. It's crunchy, it's chewy, it's warm, it's aromatic, and it's usually topped with something fatty, sweet, or in my case, stinky (that would be cheese - yeah artisan cheese).
To make artisan toast, you've got to start with artisan bread, and just what is artisan bread?
Artisan bread does not come in a cellophane bag, twisted shut with a shiny gold tie, and labeled with the words wonder, health, pride, earth godess, or (gag) Parisian.
Artisan bread does not contain calcium that can improve children's brain function and memory. (You think I'm kidding?)
Artisan bread is as hard as a brick when it's a couple days old, unless you have a fancy bread box to store it in, which might extend the shelf life another day or so. In other words, no preservatives.
Artisan bread contains these mysterious and magical ingredients: flour, water, salt, and wild wild yeast.
Artisan bread is made by an artisan baker who gets up at about 2:30 a.m., so they can make it to the bakery by 3:00 a.m., and be the first person to slide the Cecilia Bartoli CD into the sound system. Being a couple minutes late means they are forced to listen to The Best of Morrissey for the first hour, which is enough to drive anyone back to bed at 3:02 a.m.
Artisan bread is usually gone from the shelf by about 3 p.m.
Artisan bread does not come in a flash-frozen, parbaked lump, that your local grocery store plops into an oven and then goes on to announce over the loud speaker: "Attention customers, hot artisan bread is available at the bakery counter! Get it while it lasts." No, this is called making artisan bread without the artisan.
Artisan bread makers do not sell $50 million dollars in loaves of bread a year.
Artisan bread may be hard to find, in that case you'll just have to make your own.
An Artisan bread primer of sorts.
The ultimate Artisan Baking site.
Artisan Bread Bakers:
Alpine Bakery
Della Fattoria
Hearthside Bakery
Crystal Waters Bakery
Apple Tree Bakery
Tastebud Farm
Diamond Organics
Sonoma Wood Fired
Standing Stone Brewery
Silkes Old World Breads
Previously: