The Success Story of Sourdough Bread and LaBrea Bakery

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Nancy Silverton was 18, studying liberal arts at California State University in Sonoma when she began cooking in a vegetarian kitchen in her dorm. When she realized this was her passion, she apprenticed at a small California restaurant and went on to Le Cordon Bleu in London. She came back to LA and became an assistant pastry chef at a place called Michaels restaurant in Santa Monica CA.

At Michaels, she knew her passion was pastry and returned to Le Notre Culinary Institute in France, to become more skilled at pastries. After returning to America, she started working for Wolfgang Puck where she was the head pastry chef at Spago. She was there for about seven years and met her now ex-husband, Mark Peel, who was a line cook.

During that time, according to the LA Times, “It’s hard to imagine just how bad the bread scene was in LA before La Brea Bakery opened. There was already a bread revolution going on, where Steve Sullivan’s Acme Bakery had been baking breads with natural sourdough since 1983. But, in the southland, the fluffy, overly sour stuff from Pioneer Boulangerine was the best available.” (Author Russ Parsons 01/29/2014)

Silverton didn’t really understand why it was so difficult to find anything but commercial yeast for sourdough breads. So she went on a venture to try and make her own. She realized she would have to make the bread all the time to perfect it, and in her book Breads from La Brea Bakery, she states, “At the time, few restaurants in LA cared much about the bread they served. Pale rolls Styrofoam-like interiors, heated to hide their lack of flavor, passed for bread even at the most famous places.” (Silverton, pg. xxii)

When Silverton decided to open a restaurant, she didn’t want to serve nasty bread and ...

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...e first 5 min. Refrain from opening the door for the next 15min.

After 15 min., check the baguettes and rotate them if necessary to ensure even baking. Continue baking for 10-15 more min., for a total of 30-35min. Remove the baguettes to a cooking rack. They should have a golden brown crust and a porous interior. (Silverton, Breads from La Brea Bakery 1996, pg., 62-67)

Works Cited

Breads from the La Brea Bakery 1996 pg.62-67 Barcode12301

The Best Party Chef in the World

http://www.starchefs.com/chefs/nsilverton/nsilverton.shtml

Nancy Silverton Looks Back at 25 Years of La Brea Bakery

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-calcook-nancy-silverton-looks-back-at-25-years-of-la-brea-bakery-20140128,0,3246342.story#axzz2ysyYcz7x

Pizzeria Mozza

http://www.osteriamozza.com/la/team.cfm

CulinaryEd

http://www.culinaryed.com/artical/nancy-silverton.html

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