okay, after listening to the podcast, I hate it even more! Bread baking at home is self-indulgent?!
I think his stance on whether people should bake bread at home at is either nothing more than a contrarian pose or crankiness over hypothetical lost income. There are countless human endeavors that are done both by professionals and amateur…
okay, after listening to the podcast, I hate it even more! Bread baking at home is self-indulgent?!
I think his stance on whether people should bake bread at home at is either nothing more than a contrarian pose or crankiness over hypothetical lost income. There are countless human endeavors that are done both by professionals and amateurs alike, and there's nothing special about bread baking that sets it off from any other practice. Why cook anything at home at all, when there are restaurants all around with professionals who can supposedly do it better?
Also also: it sounds like he thinks people shouldn't grow their own vegetables at home because there are farmers?
I'm just annoyed that he thinks you can't have one thing without the other. You can grow vegetables and support farmers, you can bake bread at home and support local bakeries, you can cook dinner and still support restaurants. And you can celebrate and promote the joys of cooking *with* bread without needing to shit on those who love to bake it.
I'd have promoted this book on my platform, but not now. If I give it any airtime, it will only be to point out how its author thinks home bakers are self-indulgent fools.
100% understand this response. It’s a strong stance that I think is useful rhetorically to redirect conversations but could certainly be more realistic about the reasons and reality around people baking bread at home. I’ve found, for instance, I don’t want to make pizza at home... it doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea for everyone!
Working in a bakery, some of the most fun conversations all of us working there have with customers revolve around the bread or pastries that *they* bake at home, or when we give them some of our sourdough starter to use in their own kitchens, or when we can talk flour types with them. It’s a testament to the fact that most home bakers aren’t baking at home for purely individualist reasons--they’re seeking community in doing that, too, and able to find that support in local bakeries
I have no data to back this up, but I bet many home bakers are *more* willing to patronize local bakeries and to spend the money they require, since they appreciate the labor and expense that go into a great loaf.
I also think, apropos my update, it would be fruitful for you to respond to in your newsletter to the book and why it doesn't work for you. I want to read that!
Andrew, I actually would love to hear a conversation with the two of you, live. He's really coming at this from decades of being a home baker before he opened a bakery. And he's not much of a fighter, or name-caller, or my-way-or-the-highway kind of person -- in short: I think the conversation would go more smoothly than one might think based on the comments.
As I updated in the post and explained in comments, this was a breath of fresh air to me and my circumstances. I was hoping others might feel the same—if not, oh well!
I think this probably tracks (anecdotally, it’s how I treated bakeries as a home baker, before I started working in one), and it aligns with points Alicia made about people maybe making one or two kinds of bread at home, but going to a local bakery for something that’s more difficult to create in a home kitchen (baguettes, perhaps a type of bread special to a bakery)
A very important material condition to baking bread! This has me thinking to a recent essay in Vittles about the elitism of the cottagecore lifestyle. As with many things done at home, a holier-than-thou perspective or tone can easily come across, when not everyone has the material resources or the time/energy to engage in such tasks!
okay, after listening to the podcast, I hate it even more! Bread baking at home is self-indulgent?!
I think his stance on whether people should bake bread at home at is either nothing more than a contrarian pose or crankiness over hypothetical lost income. There are countless human endeavors that are done both by professionals and amateurs alike, and there's nothing special about bread baking that sets it off from any other practice. Why cook anything at home at all, when there are restaurants all around with professionals who can supposedly do it better?
Also also: it sounds like he thinks people shouldn't grow their own vegetables at home because there are farmers?
I'm just annoyed that he thinks you can't have one thing without the other. You can grow vegetables and support farmers, you can bake bread at home and support local bakeries, you can cook dinner and still support restaurants. And you can celebrate and promote the joys of cooking *with* bread without needing to shit on those who love to bake it.
I'd have promoted this book on my platform, but not now. If I give it any airtime, it will only be to point out how its author thinks home bakers are self-indulgent fools.
100% understand this response. It’s a strong stance that I think is useful rhetorically to redirect conversations but could certainly be more realistic about the reasons and reality around people baking bread at home. I’ve found, for instance, I don’t want to make pizza at home... it doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea for everyone!
Working in a bakery, some of the most fun conversations all of us working there have with customers revolve around the bread or pastries that *they* bake at home, or when we give them some of our sourdough starter to use in their own kitchens, or when we can talk flour types with them. It’s a testament to the fact that most home bakers aren’t baking at home for purely individualist reasons--they’re seeking community in doing that, too, and able to find that support in local bakeries
I have no data to back this up, but I bet many home bakers are *more* willing to patronize local bakeries and to spend the money they require, since they appreciate the labor and expense that go into a great loaf.
I also think, apropos my update, it would be fruitful for you to respond to in your newsletter to the book and why it doesn't work for you. I want to read that!
On it now, actually!
Andrew, I actually would love to hear a conversation with the two of you, live. He's really coming at this from decades of being a home baker before he opened a bakery. And he's not much of a fighter, or name-caller, or my-way-or-the-highway kind of person -- in short: I think the conversation would go more smoothly than one might think based on the comments.
As I updated in the post and explained in comments, this was a breath of fresh air to me and my circumstances. I was hoping others might feel the same—if not, oh well!
I think this probably tracks (anecdotally, it’s how I treated bakeries as a home baker, before I started working in one), and it aligns with points Alicia made about people maybe making one or two kinds of bread at home, but going to a local bakery for something that’s more difficult to create in a home kitchen (baguettes, perhaps a type of bread special to a bakery)
I also live in a place where most people don’t have ovens, making local bakers even more significant. As said, food is contextual!
A very important material condition to baking bread! This has me thinking to a recent essay in Vittles about the elitism of the cottagecore lifestyle. As with many things done at home, a holier-than-thou perspective or tone can easily come across, when not everyone has the material resources or the time/energy to engage in such tasks!