Bread and Ideas Bakery

I travelled to Paris in late 2023 on vacation. I hadn't been there in many years, and it was my fist time being there after the sourdough awakening.

Pretty much any corner bakery in Paris sells top notch sourdough (Pain au Levain). The depth of taste, and earthiness of quality sourced whole grains is in any bread you buy. But I wanted to taste bread from somewhere considered "great" by French standards, which brought me to Christophe Vasseur's bakery Du Pain et Des Idees (Bread and Ideas).

Beautiful pastries and wonderful boules and baguettes were everywhere in their tiny corner bakery. I had read that their signature bread was one called  Bread of Friends. Seen in the picture, my fist impression was "What is this?". It looked like bread lazily baked in a giant pan like sheet cake; though skeptical, I bought some along with some beautiful pistachio pastries. I also bought Vasseur's book "Bread from Earth to Table" (I hope to write about this book in a separate post).

The bread was delicious, and did not disappoint. And one thing I learned that day was not to judge by looks only. This bread didn't come in a beautiful dark-caramelized batard and covered in sesame seeds, and yet the crust, crumb and flavor were phenomenal. 

It also reminded me to be kinder to myself when I bake ugly, flat loaves!