WHO BAKES THE BEST BREAD AROUND?
Rhoads, 31, like an increasing number of young bakers, prefers this hand method. ”Everything we do is about trying to coax as much positive flavor out of the grain as possible,” he says. Artisan baking has seen a resurgence over the past 30 years, says Gina Piccolino, executive director of the Pennsylvania-based Bread Bakers Guild of America. Consumers are looking for something besides industrially made bread. Bakers who adopt the old way know their ingredients and their equipment, she says, and also how breads react in different environments. ”From our perspective, artisan baking is a craft,” says Piccolino, who met Rhoads at the guild’s national baking competitions. Rhoads learned to make bread from Alan Scott, who also builds ovens. In an e-mail from his home in Tasmania, Australia, Scott writes about allowing bread time for natural leavening agents to do their work, emphasizing the importance of proper fermentation. ”Bread is not bread until the flours or grains are fermented,”
