Volume 19 – Issue 2 summer 2011 IN THIS ISSUE 2 Notes from the Chair WheatStalk 2012 3 Guild News Editor's Note Leaving the Board 6 Member News The Bread Bakers Guild of America is very Kendall College in Chicago has graciously Women Bake Bread excited to announce WheatStalk 2012! This agreed to host WheatStalk. Located in the national bread conference will be held June heart of the Heartland, this venue will be easily 8 Regional Events 28 to June 30, 2012, and is the keystone of our accessible for many Guild members who might Asheville Bread Festival Cereal Series of 2012. The event will feature not otherwise be able to attend. We will sup- 9 Regional Baking three educationally packed days with hands- ply a list of recommended hotels later this year. Ethnic Baking in Chicago on classes, demos, lectures and oven building We have started our preparations but have a taught by industry leaders and old friends. 12 Breadville USA mountain of work ahead of us. We invite you American Baking in WheatStalk will be a joining together of to join a committee and contribute to the the Heartland member bakers, millers and growers to learn planning effort. Please contact Melina Kelson 16 Regional Baking and improve techniques, share ideas and build at [email protected] and watch upcoming Southwestern Breads community. WheatStalk will create an inclusive issues of Bread Lines for details on registration. and fun-filled atmosphere, while maximizing Breadville USA We look forward to baking with you in the 18 an educationally intensive opportunity. Artisan Breads: Windy City. Flavors of the Southwest – The WheatStalk Committee 21 Baking 101 Mixing and Techniques – Part I 24 Guild News Bernard Clayton Remembered 25 Readers' Response Defining Whole Wheat Flour ASHEVILLE 26 Hot Topic Genetically Engineered Wheat BREAD FESTIVAL Natural Selection and ..................... Genetic Modification Multigrain and 27 Regional Events sourdough breads Minneapolis Guildhall Gathering from City Bakery, Asheville, NC PAGE 9 PHOTO: LOURDES M. ALVES NotES FROM THE CHAIR E T F to LVEIG LVEIG y husband and I opened our everything. The word “cheflebrity” didn’t O F S M O bakery on March 21, and I’ve been exist, there wasn’t a televised challenge ESY ESY wracking my brain, trying to see for every item in a kitchen, cupcakes were T something larger than the work on just those little cakes, and we all just UR O the bench in front of me, something did our work. While our profession has : C that’s relevant to the membership and achieved some elevated status, thanks to hoto something to help me remember there’s this obsession with food, and our options P a big wide world outside of the work I’m have expanded due to our customers’ doing right now. Don’t get me wrong; the heightened interests in cool foods, some work is fantastic, more satisfying than I of the workers attracted to this profession could have imagined, but putting together have a slightly skewed sense of what’s coherent thoughts and actual sentences is expected and what’s possible. trust that we will continue to make the hard for my savagely sleep-deprived brain. connections between dreams and realities I implore every would-be baker to accept for both sides of the bakery equation. One thing I’ve been thinking about is all challenges, and to focus on the here- the journey from bench worker to bakery and-now. Goals are good, but thinking Hopefully, between now and the next owner – a path many of you have taken, “I’m going to be a rock star” is a complete installment, I’ll manage to find a baker a path many hope to take, and a path distraction from the work at hand. with a loud alarm clock, so I can find a many have decided to forego for all sorts Embrace the challenges of organizing your bit of time to get back in touch with the of very wise reasons. I’ve met and tried life around quasi-abnormal hours, the wonderful world at large. I’m told that to hire many people who swear to me all idea of repeatedly doing great and precise everyone is doing cool stuff - it’s festival they want to do is bake bread – they go on work, and the wonderful fact that you’re season, the farmers markets are firing about the passion, the love, the complete joining the ranks of some very awesome up in these northern climes, interesting satisfaction of pulling well-crafted loaves and interesting individuals. We urgently grains are getting harvested and milled out of the oven. And then I say, “Great! need good bakers; all Guild bakeries have and you guys are turning them into Meet me here at 1 a.m.!” and their faces hit some point where they can’t find good fascinating loaves. But for now I’ve got fall, and they say, “Oh, no, I can’t get up help. Training is great, staging is fun, to get back to it - these preferments aren’t that early!” and go on their way. studying is fantastic – but until someone going to mix themselves. stands at the bench doing the same thing I don’t have to tell this esteemed mem- over and over and is able to see the joy in bership about this disconnect between that, none of those other things matters. a would-be bread baker and an actual baker, since our doorsteps see many of I don’t plan for this to be an advice column, the ones-who-won’t-wake-up. But if there but this is what’s on my mind these days. SOLVEIG TOFTE are readers out there thinking of making I guess I’m a little bewildered by people Board Chair and the intrepid jump to professional baking, who have spent so much time and money Owner of Sun Street Breads please open your hearts and minds to the on school, or spent so many agonized Minneapolis, MN fact that this is wonderful work, the hours hours deciding to change careers, and are early, and there’s something really then when faced with the actual thing On July 1, Solveig Tofte resigned as Chair of the great about transforming your life to real- they’ve been striving for, can’t manage Board of Directors to devote her full attention to ize your goals. to take the next step. I really don’t know her new bakery and café, Sun Street Breads in Min- neapolis. She will remain a member of the Board. how to account for it. Since The Guild When I started baking, we lived in a world The new Chair, Jeff Yankellow, will outline his vision is a group of educators and learners, I for The Guild in the fall issue of Bread Lines. free of the idea of famous everyone and FROM THE EDITOR Everything needs to grow and get better: Bread Lines since the late 1990s. It’s really 20th anniversary, we will be reprinting your business, your baking knowledge, cool to lay an issue from that time period technical articles from the first 18 years your garden and yes, even your Bread next to its current iteration. of Bread Lines. Didier Rosada’s original Lines. Anyone who has been a member article (reprinted in this issue), “Mixing What’s truly marvelous is that most of of The Guild for at least a few years has and Mixing Techniques,” appeared in 2002 the information contained in those early witnessed the gradual evolution of Bread and still can serve as a primer to any new issues is still completely relevant today. Lines. I’m not the longest serving member baker and as a refresher course for those And, as confirmation of that, all this year by any stretch, but I’ve been getting who have been in the bakery a long time. and next, as we approach The Guild’s { 2 } THE BREAD BAKERS GUILD OF AMERICA GUILD NEWS THANKS TO OUR DONORS The goal of each article is to provide The Bread Bakers Guild of America gratefully recognizes its you with informational and practical 2010-2012 fundraising partners for their generosity. content that will be useful to you. Jason and Linda Gollan The write-ups on the regional events Griffin’s Bakery Galway Ireland should give you enough information Platinum Partner ($120,000) Orlando Baking Company from the workshop that you will be General Mills, Inc. Carol Robson able to apply some of the techniques Truckee Sourdough Company presented, even if you weren’t able Gold Partner ($60,000) Baker’s Bunch ($390-$989) to attend. The feature articles offer a King Arthur Flour Co. Alessio Ambruso “deeper dive” into a particular theme San Francisco Baking Institute Anonymous or topic relevant to baking. Buono’s Bakery Ann F. Burgunder Perhaps the greatest resource The Silver Partner ($36,000) Abram Faber & Christy Timon California Raisin Marketing Board Harvey Hanoian Guild has is the vast and varied Lesaffre Yeast Corporation Dave Krishock collective knowledge and experience Red Hen Baking Company of its membership. No one author Edward Short can write the definitive article on a Bronze Partner ($18,000) SoNo Baking Company Baking Buyer Standard Baking Company subject, no matter how narrow the Kemper Bakery Systems of the WP Bakery Group Solveig Tofte focus. Our hope is that the articles Modern Baking Ray Werner themselves can serve as a starting Pastry & Baking North America Becky Woehrle point for a “conversation” which Progressive Baker/Cargill Jeffrey Yankellow allows for a fuller examination of Team Alliance ($6,000) Guild Friends (Up to $389) a particular topic.