MEXICAN CULTURE RISES TO THE OCCASION

by Max Falkowitz

There’s the food, and pan only in single villages. Tortillas may be instead of butter, and chemical leaven- dulce the ritual. the nation’s foundational food, but panes ers in place of more flavorful yeast. But “Around 1 p.m., you head to the panad- dulces are its daily bread. in cities like and City, ería, grab a tray and a pair of plastic Unfortunately, most panes dulces a boost of culinary talent—and tour- tongs,” says cookbook author and Mexico leave a lot to be desired. Sensitive to ist dollars—has given a cadre of bakers City food expert Lesley Téllez. “There the financial needs of their customers— the freedom to experiment with organic are kids running around your feet, and more than 40 percent of Mexicans live grains and serious bread-making tech- everyone’s chatty, and there’s row after below the national poverty line—bak- niques. These days, Téllez explains, “any row of beautiful in every shape eries are often forced to cut ingredi- chef opening a breakfast restaurant in and color.” As many as 2,000 varieties ent costs to keep their products afford- Mexico City has to have good pan dulce,” of sweet breads and pastries are baked able, which means working with heavily and the rise of quality bakeries shows no across Mexico; some nationwide, others refined and using shortening sign of stopping.

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Pan de Muerto, Juan Pablo Hernandez, Boulenc, Oaxaca City, Mexico. RECIPE, p. 97.

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Pan dulce is what happens when On a good day, Elena Reygadas sells as Reygadas is now one of the nation’s European viennoiserie meets Mexican many as 700 panes dulces at Panadería top bakers, sprinkling laminated layers innovation. Though the sweet breads Rosetta, her bakery in the Juárez neigh- of dough with locally grown rosemary and pastries began as a way to satiate borhood of Mexico City. After getting a (recipe, plateonline.com), and sweetening the tastes of French and Spanish coloniz- culinary education in New York (at the with indigenous piloncillo ers, pan dulce has since developed into a French Culinary Institute) and London (recipe, plateonline.com). She’s especially tradition all its own. Some breads, such (working in restaurants), Reygadas interested in rare panes dulces from rural as crackle-crusted conchas and crois- returned to Mexico in 2008, and two areas, such as pan de pulque, a bread sant-like cuernitos, are everyday fare, years later opened a restaurant with its leavened by the fermented juice of agave. while others are holiday-specific. Pan own line of baked goods. The neighbors “Pan dulce is endless,” she says. “And we de muerto, an - and orange-blos- kept clamoring for bread in the morn- have so many fruits and to play som-kissed crowned with lengths of ing, so two years after that, she opened with here in Mexico.” dough that recall a skull and crossbones, a companion bakery that now supplies in Mexico forced Reygadas only emerges in October and November breads and pan dulces to to compromise—and thus to innovate. for the (recipe, p. 97). several restaurants across the city. Unbleached American wheat flour is too

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“PAN DULCE IS THIS SHARED EXPERIENCE WE ALL HAVE AS MEXICAN-AMERICANS. AND WHEN WE DON’T SEE OUR EXPERIENCE REFLECTED IN POPULAR CULTURE, WE HAVE TO CLING TO THE THINGS WE SHARE AS A COMMUNITY.” —Lesley Téllez

means conchas risen with a sourdough Most panaderías in the U.S. face the sponge (recipe, plateonline.com); kouign- same cost-conscious quality problems of amann-style rolls that ooze tarragon their Mexican peers, and despite a new- syrup with each bite; and a textbook found culinary obsession with everything croissant stuffed with ham and gooey Mexican, many Americans have over- cheese, which he proofs and laminates— looked the humble yet ubiquitous pan despite the swampy Oaxacan heat— dulce. by sheer force of will (and with a lower The exceptions deserve mentioning. hydration dough than European recipes, Téllez credits mini-chain La Monarca as using a mix of local, organic whole wheat a pan dulce vanguard in Los Angeles; flour and bleached commodity-grade). the panadería has become an institution The Saltillo-born baker developed a for its innovative use of ingredients like keen interest in sourdough from Peter agave nectar and tequila in traditional Reinhart, Chad Robertson, and Claus breads. Up until 2016, when the restau- Meyer and is excited about the slow but rant abruptly closed, Chicago’s Cantina de Reyes, Elena Reygadas, Panadería Rosetta, steady growth in high-end domestic 1910 delighted locals with a flan-stuffed Mexico City. RECIPE, plateonline.com. wheat production for quality . . And in New York City, pastry There’s no distinction between anthropologist Fany Gerson does a pan costly for the Mexican market, so when European, American, and Mexican bak- dulce weekend special at La Newyorkina: she first started baking, she used the ing at Boulenc; the genres are inextrica- two scoops of housemade ice cream same commodity-grade domestic flour bly intertwined. For Hernandez, that’s sandwiched in a split-open concha, a as industrial panaderías. “It wasn’t the part of the fun. Nixtamalization and corn wholly Mexican nod to Sicilian brioche best flour,” she admits, “but it’s import- tortillas are thousands of years old; by con gelato. ant to me that bread is accessible to contrast, pan dulce is a mere post-Colum- Those standouts matter to Téllez. “Pan everybody. And with good fermentation bian baby that demands a baker’s cre- dulce is this shared experience we all technique, you can still make very good ativity. “People have been making bread have as Mexican-Americans. And when bread.” She’s since found a “beautiful” since ancient Egypt. I’m not trying to run we don’t see our experience reflected in unbleached flour produced in northern a European or American place in Mexico. popular culture, we have to cling to the Mexico, though she still imports butter to I’m just a bread fanatic,” he says. things we share as a community.” get the quality she needs. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Lesley In Oaxaca, Juan Pablo Hernandez has Téllez has an easier time finding $3 per Max Falkowitz scarfs down street on the taken innovation to heart at his wildly dozen handmade tortillas made with regular, but his heart sings for a homemade pot of popular Boulenc bakery and café. That heirloom corn than a decent cuernito. Mexican beans.

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