he's so lovely

so, this is my third or fourth attempt at the first post. i wasn't sure how to begin. then it dawned on me, right, that all of you may want to know that i finally met Chad. as you can imagine, i felt like a thirteen year old meeting, i don't know, who's the most popular rock star these days? i'm too old to know.

and oh. he's so lovely.

as is his crew, who were hard at work when I arrived - Lori, swiftly and deftly shaping a forest of impressively hydrated loaves, Crystal ushering perfectly fermented mounds of dough into the maw of an enormous oven that hissed and steamed like some dark beast. with grace, these women worked, and seriousness. tartine bread is serious, one can be sure of that.

touring the tiny kitchen was like arriving at mecca. dewy and powerfully perfumed, one had the sense of being lacquered with something living, something sensational. i secretly hoped that i could later scrape some of the microbes from my coat sleeves and stir them into my starter. and the starter. a fawn-colored mere simmering in a bucket on a high shelf. when Chad thrust it under my nose, i knew exactly what that bread was going to taste like. the bread. that bread. when Chad gave me a loaf the size of one of the wheels on my '91 honda civic, its bark rugged and swarthy as roasted cocoa beans and festooned with shavings of goldish oat, i had forgotten what tartine bread was, i had forgotten the indescribable essence encapsulated in those holy loaves. though i was quickly reminded when i yanked off chunks and devoured handfuls as i later drove over the bay bridge. imagine: the crust, smoky, dark, chocolate, like some mayan aphrodisiac. and the crumb. oh, the crumb. a glossy, nacreous alveolation that begins with a bit of tang, moves into honey, and finishes long with vernal flora. if you think i'm being irrationally musical, you won't when i tell you that a tartine line begins at 8:30 a.m., and by 9:00 a.m. when they open their doors, the queue has extended up the block, and threatens to wrap itself round the next street over. and it's like this every day. Crystal cannot shove those loaves into her ovens fast enough.

and so this is tartine.

tartine's oat porridge bread

the thing about tartine is that despite its world-famous reputation, it remains humble. our guru was there with his crew - the two Jackie Browns of bread baking doing their thing, and then there were Nick and Richard alchemizing, fermenting. he was wearing a blue knit cap and ample beard, sleeves rolled up and plunged deeply in his work. there was not a lick of pretension about him, despite that together with his wife Elizabeth he owns two thriving restaurants, never mind the three books they've authored, all of which are a hefty force in the world of food writing. and still he took time out to meet an adherent crazy enough to take on two of his books.

which brings me to this really important bit. as soon as i got my copy of three, i immediately knew that i had the green light to get myself a komo mill. i had been wanting one since i began this whole affair, but my bread pursuit was still inchoate, and i could not justify it until i really understood what i was doing. the first few pages of three told me that i couldn't really move through the book without one. so i got a classic. much bigger and far more powerful than i could ever have imagined (plenty of power for what we are doing, you do not need the XL, trust me). i also got a sieve setup with 4 removable screens in 4 mesh sizes to sift the flour and control the amount of bran. as you can see, i already have the mill which i used today for the first time to mill dark rye berries to feed my starter, and all i can say is, damn. i am about to make some serious bread.

i will photograph the other toys when they arrive. but you have the links now so you can get yourself prepared for this part of the journey in the next week or two. i also have tons of information about sourcing whole grains which i will share in the next post. i have some things in the works that will be of interest to you all. i want to say, don't be dismayed by the prospect of sourcing grains. i have narrowed down a nice little list and will include links as well so you don't have to flounder about trying to figure out where to go. and of course, as we move through this part of the journey i will continue to include the source of the grains in a given bread. all of them are available online, which means that you can get them wherever you are in the world.

so lets get started. if we can make bread half as ambrosial as Chad's, then 2014 is going to be one hell of a sweet ride.

to the staff of life!