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.
I listened to this audio, and I heard Mr Easton say that baking bread is self-indulgent. Well, in addition to baking bread every weekend, I am an artist, and you might say that making art is self-indulgent, but where would we be without art? My bread is better than any I have tasted from anywhere. I give it away, mostly to colleagues (I am a high school teacher) and it is very well received. I wish I could bake 1 loaf at a time, for me, but that is not practical, so I share the love with the people I work with. I like making bread. That's enough for me to keep doing it. I don't need someone to tell me that it is self-indulgent. What isn't? Mr Easton disdains putting recipes in his book, but he does it anyway. What could be more self-indulgent?
I loved this, loved that he broached the subject, and I think I get at least some of their argument. Any community is going to be immeasurably richer for having a bakery. In my 3,000 person very remote community, we are extremely fortunate to have an excellent bakery and a baker who has spent years building and sharing his expertise with primarily pastries and brioche, and secondarily ciabattas, baguettes, and a solid lunch menu. A recent interest in learning to make croissants (self-indulgent, I think) should not deter my support. It raises a question for me though: If his business was reduced to reliance on baking sourdough bread, should I all but abandon my decades long practice of baking nearly all our bread? I tend to think yes. Our tourism-based community would be immeasurably poorer if he wasn't successful.
For all their various benefits, I think avocational pursuits -- hobbies -- are rather self-indulgent, even when they satisfy a need and are congruent with the social and physical environment, even when they fall within the available budget and time. Is it self-indulgent to be intellectually curious, to develop new non-vital skills that make life richer, and even get finicky (or maybe overly precious) about ingredients and tools? I think so. But self-indulgence isn't bad per se... unless sackcloth and ashes is the aspirational standard. But just as I have an impact those around me, I want to support those whose work or practice nurture the broader community. Based on what I heard in the interview, I think that's what he was trying to say.
Hmm. This piece was a joy to read, I love that you shared my childhood revulsion at white bread. I’m sorry to say I truly don’t have time to listen to the podcast (I need to search for an app that transcribes podcasts so I can speed read them I guess), but I’m incredibly perplexed at the idea that people shouldn’t make their own bread. As other commenters have said, there is room to both support local bakeries and make your own bread, and furthermore the “local” bakery I would like to patronize is one I would need to drive to, and I avoid driving as much as possible (see, concerns about wildfire smoke and Sahara dust...), not to mention, like many people, I do have a budget and making my own bread is less than half the price? Oh well. Guess I better go look for that transcribing app because this stance just makes no sense to me!
Just here to celebrate "garlic is one of the most abused ingredients in restaurants." I'm kind of allergic, so I'm biased, but that made me so happy! I'm here for more subtle use of garlic and even for opting to not have it in some dishes.
I just have to listen to the podcast now. My morning assignment.
And about this -- ‘They don’t want you to make the bread yourself. In fact, they discourage you! They say find a local bakery making bread you like and support them.’
I LOVE baking my own bread. Feeding the starter. Making the dough. Watching over the oven. It is all one of the most enjoyable things in my life - even soothing, when I desperately need it lol.
But: I also love our local bakeries! Down in the hi-desert, where we live right now, we are blessed with two. And I want to give them both a big shout out.
One is Wild Bread, a ‘cottage bakery’/pop up -- started by Lara and Lis three years ago - in Pioneertown (a small village built about 15 minutes away from our canyon that was originally built in 1946 as a set for western movies - really, it’s true!). Even when I’m baking every week we still get our ‘Dez Sez’ loaf from Wild Bread and a couple cinnamon buns and a brioche (our order for tomorrow, actually) because it’s all so good and we love Lara and Lis. (Once a month maybe they also do bagels, and then - thank God! - we don’t have to get up before dawn and schlep all the way to Palm Springs just for a bagel fix.)
The other local bakery is Luna Bakery, who actually have a shop in Yucca Valley, only 40 minutes away. All their bread is made with their sourdough starter, by hand in small batches from scratch. And their stuff is also so good. So so good. No bagels, but scones, tarts, cookies, cakes... yeah, so good.
Anyway, you can see we end up eating a LOT of bread and other baked stuff.
I like this book, but I gotta say I was annoyed by the intro, particularly the section discouraging people from making bread at home. (I mean, OF COURSE I would be annoyed by it.)
Yeah, we should all patronize our local bakeries, but not everyone has a good one nearby and not everyone can afford good bakery prices. And there's no need to make home bread baking seem harder or more expensive than it is ("like riding a bike on bent rims"? what?) to justify a pro-bakery stance. It's a minor thing, but I feel like the editor of this book should have excised that section. (Especially because the book DOES include recipes for breads from scratch.)
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.
I listened to this audio, and I heard Mr Easton say that baking bread is self-indulgent. Well, in addition to baking bread every weekend, I am an artist, and you might say that making art is self-indulgent, but where would we be without art? My bread is better than any I have tasted from anywhere. I give it away, mostly to colleagues (I am a high school teacher) and it is very well received. I wish I could bake 1 loaf at a time, for me, but that is not practical, so I share the love with the people I work with. I like making bread. That's enough for me to keep doing it. I don't need someone to tell me that it is self-indulgent. What isn't? Mr Easton disdains putting recipes in his book, but he does it anyway. What could be more self-indulgent?
I loved this, loved that he broached the subject, and I think I get at least some of their argument. Any community is going to be immeasurably richer for having a bakery. In my 3,000 person very remote community, we are extremely fortunate to have an excellent bakery and a baker who has spent years building and sharing his expertise with primarily pastries and brioche, and secondarily ciabattas, baguettes, and a solid lunch menu. A recent interest in learning to make croissants (self-indulgent, I think) should not deter my support. It raises a question for me though: If his business was reduced to reliance on baking sourdough bread, should I all but abandon my decades long practice of baking nearly all our bread? I tend to think yes. Our tourism-based community would be immeasurably poorer if he wasn't successful.
For all their various benefits, I think avocational pursuits -- hobbies -- are rather self-indulgent, even when they satisfy a need and are congruent with the social and physical environment, even when they fall within the available budget and time. Is it self-indulgent to be intellectually curious, to develop new non-vital skills that make life richer, and even get finicky (or maybe overly precious) about ingredients and tools? I think so. But self-indulgence isn't bad per se... unless sackcloth and ashes is the aspirational standard. But just as I have an impact those around me, I want to support those whose work or practice nurture the broader community. Based on what I heard in the interview, I think that's what he was trying to say.
Hmm. This piece was a joy to read, I love that you shared my childhood revulsion at white bread. I’m sorry to say I truly don’t have time to listen to the podcast (I need to search for an app that transcribes podcasts so I can speed read them I guess), but I’m incredibly perplexed at the idea that people shouldn’t make their own bread. As other commenters have said, there is room to both support local bakeries and make your own bread, and furthermore the “local” bakery I would like to patronize is one I would need to drive to, and I avoid driving as much as possible (see, concerns about wildfire smoke and Sahara dust...), not to mention, like many people, I do have a budget and making my own bread is less than half the price? Oh well. Guess I better go look for that transcribing app because this stance just makes no sense to me!
Just here to celebrate "garlic is one of the most abused ingredients in restaurants." I'm kind of allergic, so I'm biased, but that made me so happy! I'm here for more subtle use of garlic and even for opting to not have it in some dishes.
I just have to listen to the podcast now. My morning assignment.
And about this -- ‘They don’t want you to make the bread yourself. In fact, they discourage you! They say find a local bakery making bread you like and support them.’
I LOVE baking my own bread. Feeding the starter. Making the dough. Watching over the oven. It is all one of the most enjoyable things in my life - even soothing, when I desperately need it lol.
But: I also love our local bakeries! Down in the hi-desert, where we live right now, we are blessed with two. And I want to give them both a big shout out.
One is Wild Bread, a ‘cottage bakery’/pop up -- started by Lara and Lis three years ago - in Pioneertown (a small village built about 15 minutes away from our canyon that was originally built in 1946 as a set for western movies - really, it’s true!). Even when I’m baking every week we still get our ‘Dez Sez’ loaf from Wild Bread and a couple cinnamon buns and a brioche (our order for tomorrow, actually) because it’s all so good and we love Lara and Lis. (Once a month maybe they also do bagels, and then - thank God! - we don’t have to get up before dawn and schlep all the way to Palm Springs just for a bagel fix.)
The other local bakery is Luna Bakery, who actually have a shop in Yucca Valley, only 40 minutes away. All their bread is made with their sourdough starter, by hand in small batches from scratch. And their stuff is also so good. So so good. No bagels, but scones, tarts, cookies, cakes... yeah, so good.
Anyway, you can see we end up eating a LOT of bread and other baked stuff.
And so really, you can have it both ways!
Been listening to Duncan Sheik all morning!
Excited that my library has ordered this book. I've placed a hold on it and look forward to reading the book as soon as it arrives.
I like this book, but I gotta say I was annoyed by the intro, particularly the section discouraging people from making bread at home. (I mean, OF COURSE I would be annoyed by it.)
Yeah, we should all patronize our local bakeries, but not everyone has a good one nearby and not everyone can afford good bakery prices. And there's no need to make home bread baking seem harder or more expensive than it is ("like riding a bike on bent rims"? what?) to justify a pro-bakery stance. It's a minor thing, but I feel like the editor of this book should have excised that section. (Especially because the book DOES include recipes for breads from scratch.)