Recently I visited a commercial bakery in New York city where I live
and work as a Chef, it's a large scale artisan bakery owned by a
successful chef turned entrepreneur and one of New Yorks first "artisan
bakers." Let me tell you my whole aesthetic and artsy fartsy dream of
owning a bakery was shattered! The machinery and the expansive space
filled with racks full of fresh baked breads was enough, but the
massive ovens, my jaw was on the floor as he gave me the tour of his
factory;there was the recognizable dough in the mixers, proofers,
racks, benches, but in my mind I had envisioned busy hands and hard
working bakers I had seen in other bakeries where I had staged for the
feel and experience! What is a dreamer of the stone hearth and hand
shaped loaves supposed to think? Is there space for us or should we be
relegated to the home oven producing our one or two loaves for friends
and family, or to post frivolously on a bread forum so you can tap
yourself on the head and get lauded by your fellow bakers? The owner
told me that he had long passed the early adventures of being a night
baker, a strange place filled with odd characters that quietly work in
the caverns or basements mixing, folding,shaping and finally baking the
most basic foodstuff that humans enjoy. So what is it?, that link that
makes us endeavor and toil over this gas bubble with it's crust and
slashed signature of the baker.Certainly the feel of the dough is a
throw back to handling clay I suppose, but with a warmer feel,
vivant!Then the stages which are most difficult for me, the folding and
fermentation, the pre-shape,the short rest period, shaping for the last
fermentation, if need be a long retardation in the fridge if we are a
modern kind of baker, then the coupe de grace and finally pop! In the
oven it goes!......Oh let's not forget the the snap crackle and pop of
when the bread is set free from the hearth and cooled! All a perfect
ballet with spins and pirouettes with begining and final act.
I suppose I won't give up on the dream maybe I'll just have to, knead,
re-shape it and see where or what comes from the ashes of this rude
awakening and dream of the lonliness of night baker!
Replies
Jeremy, friends have been encouraging me to open a bakery, but I’ve spoken to the owner of a bakery too. What she tells me wipes out any romantic notions. She doesn’t have the time to make or decorate cakes, which she loves, and has to get them from an outside source. All she is concerned with is making enough for her overhead$$$. *pop*
Let’s hope, that you (and I), will one day find a half-way dream bakery that we can find true joy in producing wondrous breads with our own hands and signature.
It sort of put things into perspective, I guess dream a little bit smaller and maybe that can achieve the two things, maybe? Although I think you have tremendous talent and it shows!
J