BEYOND THE BREAD REVOLUTION: BACK TO THE FUTURE

Hand-grated breadcrumbs appear in several dozen Juan Altamiras dishes: he would have used wheaten white, wholegrain wheat, spelt, rye, or barley mixed grain at various times. Below left, panko, a short-cut if you have no bread available. — Breadcrumbs are a waste-not-want-not star ingredient of Franciscan cookery. Clockwise from top left, wheaten white-flour crumb and crust, then spelt-flour, wholemeal, rye and mixed grain crumbs, all hand-grated. You can also use ready-made panko, below left. © Vicky Hayward

Although the “real bread” revolution reached Spain decades after barefoot bakers were at work in the United States and other European countries, it has made a huge impact. Regional breadmaking from valleys, towns and villages had been fading fast in the face of imported industrial products, but now it’s returned with a firm foothold. Bakers have revived wood-fired ovens, stone-ground flours, sourdoughs (masas madres), artesanal wholegrain breads and yeasted sweetbreads. Most recently the energy has spread to high-profile restaurant kitchens: some are building bakeries and a few chefs dedicated their Covid years to experimenting with doughs.

Necessarily, most full-time bakers follow former generations’ dedicated early-rising lifestyle and they work long shop hours too, yet they share the hyper-communicative digital culture of panaderos/as elsewhere. In this fast-paced scene Pan, a twice-yearly Madrid-based magazine, in its seventh year of life, has played a key role. It’s the Wallpaper of the bread world: photographs lead the way through professional recipes and in-depth essays on breadmaking techniques, ingredients, science, design and new-wave mash-up baking.

The formula has worked. While most print magazines on food have been disappearing, or going digital, Pan has flourished in print, now linking up a worldwide hispanic readership. The magazine embraces breadmaking as culture, past, present and future. Gustavo Puerta Leisse, their cultural editor in 2021, invited me to write a piece linked to Altamiras, but following a long lunchtime conversation in a Peruvian restaurant we refocussed on a three-way feature highlighting how history can help to add new dimensions to baking businesses. Tom Jaine, editor of the Oxford Companion to Food, wrote on the hidden values of building a wood-fired bread oven; Padraig O’Gallagher retold his epic revival of an Irish potato bread for hip Dublin diners; and I had the chance to sing for a revival of the breadcrumb cookery of the past.

Special thanks go to the Pan team – not only Gustavo, but also Lorenzo and Bea. It was a pleasure to collaborate with a venture that shows how high production values, editorial care and consultation at every moment are worth their weight in gold.

Vicky Hayward
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“Carter’s Chicken with Sauce for the Poor” (Pollos de Carretero con Salsa de Pobres). The garlic and saffron sauce is thickened with breadcrumbs. © Vicky Hayward

Pan magazine on sale in a Madrid bakery. © Vicky Hayward

The revival of ‘real bread’ reached Spain late, but it is having a huge impact, with new generations of farmers and bakers working together to create artesanal wholegrain breads.”

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