FOr for many French people, the first experience they were allowed to have on their own as children was a visit to the local bakery. The smell of bread mixed with a new sensation of freedom, on the tip of the baguette, breadTorn on the way home. It is a love story, but it contains some truths about the valuable role that bread and the baker play. France, and that attracted me, an English baker, to the country.
Having worked and lived in Paris and Marseille, I have learned that while there is much to admire about the French relationship with bread, its web of political, social and economic ties makes it less attractive. It may seem like it from the outside. On the one hand, sales of industrially produced prefrozen bakery products are increasing. The Spanish company Europastry is one of the best manufacturers in this growing field. It was recently stated that between their frozen products and their artisanal non-frozen equivalents, “a blind test can't tell which is which.” In France, frozen pastries and sweet pastries will represent a significant 24% of all pastries in 2021, more than in Great Britain and Spain.
Even the romance of the baguette, a symbol of national identity, is so complex that it is subject to scrutiny. Originating from the bread of the Parisian bourgeoisie, it is a relatively expensive bread to make gram for gram. The space it takes up in the oven makes it less efficient than baking a large loaf, and to achieve the desirable “glass” crust, it is shaped, which is labor-intensive, the same morning it is baked, which forces bakers to grueling night shifts. (This is not a new issue: one of the laws enacted by the Paris Commune in 1871 was the immediate cessation of night shifts for bakers.) Many of the traditional bakery workers are trained; Bakery owners often depend on and exploit these low-paid workers.
Many rules and laws are intended to protect standards, but they also provide false comfort. For example, a bakery is called Artisan Baker All their breads must be made and baked on site (as if made by an artisan baker); You won't find factory-made pre-frozen breads there. But this does not guarantee that bakers do not use premixes and improvers in their products, which is a very common practice.
In fact, most baguettes made in France are made with very white, roller-milled refined flour and baker's yeast. The industrial roller milling method, which is used to produce most white flour around the world, means that all fibre, fat, mineral content and many vitamins are completely removed. A large body of research shows a link between type 2 diabetes, gluten intolerance and gastrointestinal problems and regular consumption of refined white flour in more whole food alternatives. The unique thing about the yeast process is the long lactobacterial fermentation, which helps break down the gluten and makes more vitamins and minerals available, which a standard yeasted white bread lacks.
I am not trying to claim superiority for my homeland, Great Britain. France is a heavily agricultural country, meaning that many people still maintain a connection to the land and an understanding of what wheat is really like. Many small “peasant” farmers in France continue to grow traditional varieties of wheat and “population” wheats, giving the land biodiversity and diversity of flavors (“unlike modern wheat monoculture,” which makes up the majority of wheat grown) . world). Together with movements such as the Réseau Semences Paysannes (Agricultural Seed Network) and the Paysan Boulangers (farmers who make bread from their wheat), they have successfully worked to preserve and multiply ancient seed varieties and cultivation practices, and inspire farmers and producers. around the world. .
In Britain, following industrialisation, we lost most of our traditional varieties of wheat, including those that our ancestors grew naturally to suit the local climate and terrain. But in recent years, the work of visionary plant breeders and cereal historians such as Andy Forbes of Brockwell Pack in south London, John Letts of Lammas Fair in Buckinghamshire and Andrew Whitley of Scotland. They filled bread gaps: they worked “in bulk” with handfuls of wheat taken from seed banks, bringing to bakers varieties of wheat that had lain dormant for generations. Britain has seen a huge boom in the number of small, independent bakeries specializing in sourdough bread, learning not only from books and from bakers abroad (especially in the United States and France), but also by experimenting and sharing knowledge. . In many ways, more interesting bread is baked in Britain today than in France, without the rules and weight of tradition.
But France still has a lot to teach us: to care about the right to access something that gives us daily happiness. Who can't say that tearing apart a hot baguette and eating it with butter is one of life's greatest pleasures? And that baker is about himself: someone who can nourish his communities and provide a strong bond between people and the land.
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