“I remember when Alice, at Chez Panisse, switched to grass-fed beef. It seemed so crazy at the time,” Chad Robertson, the co-owner of San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery, says between bouts of kneading dough. He stands at a long wooden counter toward the back of the bakery, where bins of various heights populate the shelves and floor. Inside the containers are grains of assorted colors and sizes, waiting to be sprouted or ground into flour and then transformed into hearty loaves. “Now look at grass-fed beef,” Robertson continues. “The price has dropped. It’s in the restaurants, and it’s everywhere. The same seems to be happening with these grains.”
Robertson and his wife, Elisabeth Prueitt, opened Tartine Bakery, located in the city’s Mission District, in 2002. It’s widely known for its naturally leavened bread, which takes two days to rise. Robertson was inspired by the bread revolution that Lionel Poilâne began in Paris thirty years ago with whole grains and wild yeast (similar to what Adam Gopnik describes making with his mother in this week’s issue). After investigative treks to Denmark and Sweden, he has started to incorporate heirloom varieties of grains, like rye and barley, and ancient grains, like einkorn and emmer, into his bread. “These older varieties have a different gluten quality, and it’s much easier to digest,” he says. “A lot of people are having trouble digesting the modern wheats.”
As we talk, Robertson continues to fold and twist the potential loaf before him. “I want to see bakers have a larger variety of grain to work with, and farmers grow stuff they’re proud of,” he says. After a few minutes, he caresses the dough into a perfect mound and sets it aside to rise. “With these grains, we’re building on the tradition, and it’s exciting.” Robertson’s third book, “Tartine Book No. 3,” will be published on December 17th.
