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One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust
Algonquin Books
May 2010
On Sale: May 4, 2010
352 pages
ISBN: 1565125835
EAN: 9781565125834
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Inspirational
William Alexander is determined to bake the perfect loaf of
bread. He tasted it long ago, in a restaurant, and has been
trying to reproduce it ever since. Without success. But now
he’s going to try again—every week for one year—until he
gets it right. He will bake his peasant loaf from scratch.
And because Alexander is nothing if not thorough, he really
means from scratch: growing, harvesting, winnowing,
threshing, and milling his own wheat. Alexander’s often hilarious quest takes our (anti)hero
through dangerous back alleys of Morocco, where he bakes
his loaf in an ancient communal oven; to Paris, where he
enrolls in the cours de boulangerie at the famed École Ritz
Escoffier; to a monastery in Normandy, where (his lack of
French and faith notwithstanding) he becomes bread baker to
the monks; and finally to his own backyard, where he builds
a lopsided brick oven and learns that perfection is just a
state of mind. Alexander also takes us along on
entertaining visits to yeast factories and flour mills,
seeks advice from master bread bakers, captures wild yeast
to make his own levain, and enters the baking contest at
the New York State Fair. An original take on the six-thousand-year-old staple of
life, 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the
meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to re-
create something perfect, our deep connection to the earth,
and the mysterious instinct that makes every single person
on the planet, regardless of culture or society, respond to
the aroma of baking bread.
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