52 Loaves : One Mans Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust

English

ISBN: 1565125835

EAN: 9781565125834

Category: Cooking / Courses & Dishes / Bread

Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Release Date: 01/27/2012

Synopsis: William Alexander is determined to bake the perfect loaf of bread. He tasted it long ago, in a restaurant, and has been trying to reproduce it ever since. Without success. But now hes going to try again?every week for one year?until he gets it right. He will bake his peasant loaf from scratch. And because Alexander is nothing if not thorough, he really means from scratch: growing, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, and milling his own wheat. Alexanders often hilarious quest takes our (anti)hero through dangerous back alleys of Morocco, where he bakes his loaf in an ancient communal oven; to Paris, where he enrolls in the cours de boulangerie at the famed ?cole Ritz Escoffier; to a monastery in Normandy, where (his lack of French and faith notwithstanding) he becomes bread baker to the monks; and finally to his own backyard, where he builds a lopsided brick oven and learns that perfection is just a state of mind. Alexander also takes us along on entertaining visits to yeast factories and flour mills, seeks advice from master bread bakers, captures wild yeast to make his own levain, and enters the baking contest at the New York State Fair. An original take on the six-thousand-year-old staple of life, 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to re-create something perfect, our deep connection to the earth, and the mysterious instinct that makes every single person on the planet, regardless of culture or society, respond to the aroma of baking bread.

Excerpt: Unknown Property Excerpt

52 Loaves : One Mans Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust

Illustrated: No

Format: Hardcover

Height: 1.06 inches

Width: 5.88 inches

Length: 8.5 inches

Weight: 18.13 oz

Pages: 352