Define artisan
This post has a twofold inspiration - a little brochure I picked up in a 'boulangerie artisan' in Mirande in the Gers area of France, and the trumpeted arrival of Irrewarra sourdough bread in our local Woolworths. Above is a picture of the baguettes from Mirande - price less than a euro (a little more than $1.00). Below is a picture of Irrewarra sourdough bread - price $7.50. Similar looking but a huge difference in price.
Let me say at the outset that I cannot really comment on the quality of the Irrewarra sourdough as I have not tasted it - we can't bring ourselves to pay that much for bread when Coles sourdough and rustic baguettes from Laurent are so good. Besides David actually makes the best sour dough bread of all at home. I am lucky. There are also other sources of 'artisan' bread, even in Eltham - the old Europa Bakery and various others - Flinders, Phillipa's? in the delicatessen and maybe Farmer Joe's. Not to mention the Health Food shop which probably has lots of such stuff. All very expensive. And then there are Coles and Woolworths, both of whom have 'bakeries' in their stores - in which they cook the prepared frozen dough that comes from elsewhere - and Bakers Delight - which also makes sourdough bread - on the premises. Bread and especially breads like sourdough, focaccia, ciabatta and other fashionable names are a big thing at the moment. And this is good. Let me not knock it. When we first came to Australia you could only get packaged sliced bread - well more or less - and then came the hot bread shops - and now there is a huge proliferation of 'artisan' breads as well as a lifting of standards in the everyday bread of the supermarkets and chains such as Bakers' Delight. Things have come a long way since 1969.
So let's look at the word 'artisan'. Here in Australia anyone can use it for anything - it's a marketing word that is bandied about - particularly on expensive and 'healthy' foods. In France it's a legal definition. Bread is a highly legalised thing there. You cannot call yourself an artisan boulanger unless your bread is completely made on the premises. I do not know if this includes hand kneading. Surely not - surely they have machines to do that. But the final shaping is certainly done by hand. Though it seems that such a boulanger can onsell his bread to another shop though whether it can still be called artisan I have no idea. The law also strictly defines what you can put into your bread - at least if it is a standard bread like a baguette - which also has to be a particular weight and length. My guess is that individual bakeries can experiment with their own breads as long as it is not an 'official' type. Though phrases like 'pain du teroir' also have strict definitions. I believe they could also lay down the law on how much you could charge for the baguette and other 'standard' breads, though I am not sure whether this still applies. Nevertheless a baguette is almost always below a euro in price. The rules also apply to when you can open - you're supposed to close one day a week by law. If you want to be called a boulangerie that is. If you are a supermarket or a dépot de pain (a bread depot - sells bread brought in from elsewhere) you can open when you like. It's a world away from how artisan is used here.
And a brief word about my boulangerie in Mirande. It was quite large and was also a patisserie - as most boulangeries are, and its bread was lovely. We bought from there a few times as it was across the road from our nearest supermarket. The brochure that I picked up was about the Association Pain du Terroir Gersois - a group founded back in 1994 which not only insisted on all the other things in the law but also strictly used the flour produced from the grain grown in their Département of Gers. They also seem to have a strong educational ethos - their website has a few pictures of little groups of schoolchildren watching them make bread. And personally I think their bread looks much more tempting than that of the Irrewarra Bakery - in spite of its classy packaging.
So - Irrewarra sourdough bread. Do you not think it looks a little bit more plastic and less real than the French artisan bread (shown above)? Though, as I said before, I have not tasted it. Maybe it is heaps better. I looked them up of course and, as always, there were quite a few interesting things to say as a result.
The bakery is the brainchild of two Melbourne lawyers, one of whom, had family connections in Irrewarra and when his father became ill they moved there. They had been making sourdough bread for themselves at home and decided to open a small bakery. Initially they would make the bread, then drive it along the Great Ocean Road to various small shops who were impressed enough to buy it. The delivery became too much, so couriers were employed and when people in Melbourne who had holidayed on the coast and tasted the bread, demanded it back in Melbourne they expanded again. In spite of opposition from the local council they again expanded - on their property - well I assume they did as their business address is still Irrewarra - not Colac, where the council wanted them to go. They also widened their business to make their super, super expensive ($22.00 a kilo!) granola and some panforte. Being lawyers they were able to defeat a court case brought by Uncle Toby's about the usage of the word granola (rightly so I reckon - and a bonus for other manufacturers too). So one part of me is full of admiration for people who have brought employment and, most likely, a bit of tourism to a small country Victorian town - and in the form of a healthy and well-crafted product. And also I guess that when such products gain popularity then the big companies follow suit.
Their website is beautiful and great care has been taken with the wording. "Shaped by hand and baked on the stone floor of the oven, every loaf is the individual expression of the baker's hands." They even go so far as to justify the price in a lengthy paragraph:
"The 'sour' in sourdough is, simply, the lactic acid produced by the microorganisms, the same way that yoghurt is sour. Commercially yeasted 'quick' breads use a virulent strain of yeast that works so fast that there is no fermentation, and as a result, no flavour, no breaking down of the gluten, and not easy to digest. That's why it is said that the 5th ingredient in sourdough is TIME! Time nowadays is money, and that's why our bread is a little more expensive than quick yeasted breads, but the health benefits and taste is worth it ... it's real natural bread."
It sounds convincing but time is surely not an issue because whilst one lot is fermenting another is being finished and another begun. Continuous production surely eliminates that argument. And we are not talking about 'a little more expensive' here. We are talking about a lot more expensive. Even Woolworths gourmet sourdough bread is a few dollars less. As an aside and with respect to the wording - 'virulent' as a word referring to yeast is potent and 'quick' used in a derogatory sense too. And what does natural really mean?
Which brings me to another interesting - and rather troubling fact. David always likes to ask questions and complain about high priced things in supermarkets and he was told that Irrewarra sourdough bread is 'walking off the shelves' and that also only Eltham and Toorak Woolworths stores stock it. I must confess I was surprised to hear this - in the sense that Toorak has long been regarded at one of the most expensive parts of Melbourne - and old money at that - but I would not have put Eltham in that category. Which is interesting. Why not Brighton for example - or Hawthorn? But what it does show is that what you get in one Woolworths is not what you get in another and it also shows that its only the rich that can afford 'real natural bread'. Most likely in the poorest suburbs - where they need 'real natural bread' the most - they doubtless just get tasteless white sliced bread. As these suburbs have a higher number of fast food outlets and betting shops, then doubtless their supermarkets are full of processed and cheap foods. It's sad that good means expensive. And yet the French government - or maybe the french bakers - see that the bread they serve to everyone is cheap. Can't we do that here? If the poor had easier access to good quality basic food such as bread, then maybe they would not be so obese and so prone to diabetes.
So a tick for enterprise and for raising standards and a black mark for making it so expensive. Does it really have to be this way? Laurent seems to be able to produce good quality in a factory - but maybe he is one step further along the development trail.
