Practice makes perfect when baking bread, author says
Francisco Migoya never set out to be a bread baker. Yet he’s spent the last four years exploring every element of bread baking. That included 1,600 experiments and diving into recipes from around the globe.
It’s all there in the five-volume “Modernist Bread” ($625, The Cooking Lab), a 2,642 page collection of 1,200 recipes co-authored with Modernist Cuisine’s Nathan Myhrvold. The five volumes of research and recipes explore the science, structure and ingredients behind better bread.
If you want to bake better bread, this book will get you there. Migoya will tell you that you don’t need fancy equipment, nor do you need expensive ingredients to bake good bread. It does require practice.
A native of Mexico City, Migoya previously worked at The French Laundry and spent nine years teaching at the Culinary Institute of America, where he authored three books, “Elements of Dessert,” “The Modern Cafe” and “Frozen Desserts”.
He and the Modernist Cuisine team are working on the next book project, which will be officially announced in March.
Question: Tell us a bit about your background and path to Modernist Bread.
Answer: I was born in Mexico City, and I went to culinary school in Mexico but also in France. When I finished my education, I went to live in New York City. My initial job there was a savory job in a restaurant. That’s what I trained for and went to school for, but I was absolutely miserable, to put it mildly. This was back in 1998 when you still had to buy a newspaper to see want ads.
I saw a pastry position at The River Cafe, which is still open. I went to go to a “stage,” where you work for free and you see if you’re good enough for the job and if it’s a good match. At the end of the shift, they offered me the job on the spot. I realized that (pastry) was my calling. I’m fortunate my first job was so awful, because if it was good I probably wouldn’t have made my transition to pastry.
I moved to California in 2003 to become executive pastry chef at The French Laundry in Yountville. Part of my duty was to be in charge of Bouchon Bakery. I had to do pastry but oversee the bread production. Everyone knew I was a baker, but I had to learn on the job.
It was so different from everything I had done before. My daughter was born, and I realized I was seeing more of my chefs than my daughter, so I needed to do a complete lifestyle change. I applied to teach at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. I taught there for about nine years. I wrote three books.
I taught for the majority of the time at a bakery cafe on campus that is open to the public and produces everything from savory food to desserts, artisan breads, wedding cakes, ice cream, all produced by students under chef supervision. This gave me a lot of eye opening as to how to teach people.
I wanted to bring that with me to Modernist Cuisine. I never applied to the position. I didn’t think there’d be a book about anything I specialized in. One day, one of Nathan (Myhrvold’s) talent seekers left a voicemail and asked If I had heard of Modernist Cuisine. Who hasn’t? The moment I got that phone call I knew it was something I wanted to do.
Q: What defines Modernist Bread?
A: There are many practices that are done that are perhaps a method invented a couple hundred years ago, nobody ever changed it or questioned or evolved it. They’re done because they’ve always been done that way. Modernist is different, questioning all aspects of the product and thinking of ways it can be improved. … Modernist bread is a way of hacking food. We’re hacking with technique and technology to make bread better, more efficient, tastier.
Q: What is the No. 1 thing you want people to know about bread baking?
A: Anybody can make good bread. If you read and practice, you can make good bread.
Q: What’s the most important equipment home bakers should have?
A: Home bakers need to know to throw all their volume measures in the garbage and buy a scale. There is no easier way to become a frustrated baker than to measure things inaccurately. When you measure things inaccurately, your failure rate is greatly increased. So first thing, get a scale.
Second, get a thermometer, which will guarantee temperature accuracy. When you’re a novice baker, (a thermometer) is also the easiest way to tell if your dough is finished.
Q: What about baking pans?
A: My favorite vessel for baking bread at home is something called a castiron combination cooker. It is made by Lodge. They’re about $40. … Dutch ovens are not good at baking bread, because of the color inside, the beige.
Q: Is there a recipe you recommend for a beginner?
A: Rye bread. That is where I would start if I was a beginner. … Bread will require some practice. The good thing is the ingredients are pretty inexpensive, and even bad bread can be good.
Q: What’s your favorite flour for bread?
A: It depends on what we’re doing, but we tested our recipes with three types of wheat flour, three brands. As far as large-scale manufacturers, my favorite is Central Milling in California. There are others that produce good bread, like King Arthur and Gold Medal Better for Bread. You can find those anywhere you shop in the U.S.