Cook with Me - The Love of Bread

One of Masterchef NZ winner Aaron's great passions is bread-making and in his new book he devotes more than 20 pages to the subject. Having tried his sourdough (his speciality) I can vouch for the fact that he knows what he is writing about! It is stunning and he told me it is inspired by the famous San Francisco bakeryTartine.

Here is part  of his introduction to this section:

For me, there is hardly another food that is more fundamental or pleasing than bread. I get all philosophical just thinking about it. Bread is past and present at the same time. When I bite into the crunchy crust on a chunk fresh from the brick oven I made myself, my mind is drawn to the history behind every loaf and the long line of bakers stretching back to who knows when.

To me, making sourdough is like dancing with science; it’s a fascinating combination of intuition and intellect. It’s also a great example of yin and yang — as much as the geek in me loves being precise with temperatures and times, what equally matters is taking myself out of the driver’s seat and learning to respond to what the dough is doing.

A loaf of bread has a natural life cycle, and it’s great to make the most of it at each stage of its life (that’s if you and your friends can resist devouring it all in one sitting!). I love it hot from the oven with butter, or served with oil, a few fresh tomatoes, salt and herbs. For the next morning, it’s the best toast, and then a couple of days later is the perfect time to make a panzanella, which brings it back to life when it’s a bit older and drier.

I’ve included how I make sourdough in this book because I believe that making your own bread is one of the most satisfying, challenging and rewarding ways to enjoy food. 

Aaron even built his own oven in which to bake his bread, and pizzas !


Cook with Me 
Aaron Brunet
Random House  - $49.99

There are more than 220  wonderful colour photographs in the book all by ace food photographer Kieran Scott.He also did the cover.
The photo of Aaron's brick oven here though was taken by Aaron himself especially for this blog post..

And here is a video clip of Aaron making his sourdough bread - http://vimeo.com/86475595