L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016 L'Italo-Americano T he smell of freshly baked bread is arguably one of the world's most sublime aromas. A British study last year found that the smell of baking bread topped the list of all-time favorite scents, beating out siz- z l i n g b a c o n , f r e s h l y m o w e d grass and hot-brewed coffee. Those survey results would n o t s u r p r i s e m a s t e r b a k e r George DePasquale one bit. The son of a large Italian family f r o m L o n g I s l a n d a n d c o - f o u n d er o f Es s en tial B ak in g Company, one of Seattle's first artisan bakeries, DePasquale g r e w u p m a k i n g a n d b a k i n g bread. Every weekend, his extended family would assemble to pre- pare the week's food. It wasn't long before DePasquale found that bread baking was, well, his cup of tea. "I liked the smell of it," he said. "I liked working the dough and forming the loaves. Sure, I did my share of cleaning fish and rolling out pasta, but I always had an interest in bread, a l t h o u g h , h o n e s t l y , I n e v e r t h o u g h t I ' d g r o w u p t o b e a baker." DePasquale started Essential Baking Company in Seattle in 1994. After testing the waters at farmers markets and other loca- tions around town, DePasquale heard that Buchan's Bakery, a charming 1920s red-brick build- ing in the Fremont neighbor- hood, was for lease. He jumped at the chance to establish a per- manent home for the business. Today, the company has four cafes, including the original one in Fremont, and a bakery com- missary. " W e c a l l o u r s e l v e s t h e biggest little bakery in town," said DePasquale. "We deliver to most of the grocery chains and m a n y o f t h e r e s t a u r a n t s a n d cafes in Puget Sound, using our o w n t r u c k s . W e a l s o s e l l t o national distributors, so basically our product is available around the country." Each day, the commissary bakes thousands of loaves by hand, from ciabatta to Pugliese, o l i v e t o r o s e m a r y d i a m a n t e . Using high-quality, organic, all- natural ingredients and employ- ing naturally fermented starters, t h e E s s e n t i a l b a k e r s r e l y o n time-honored techniques to cre- ate their loaves. The company also turns out a huge assortment of pastries, cookies and desserts. As a teenager, DePasquale c o n t i n u e d t o b a k e b r e a d f o r friends and family. At the age of 2 0 , h e m o v e d t o S o n o m a County, Calif., with a friend and landed a job at the Alvarado Street Bakery in Petaluma. "In the baking industry at that time, there was a huge insur- g e n c e o f i n t e r e s t i n o r g a n i c wheat and all-natural products," s a i d D e P a s q u a l e . " A l v a r a d o Street Bakery was a wholesale collective and everyone owned a share of the business. We were basically all hippies back then." S e v e r a l d e c a d e s l a t e r , DePasquale retains his passion for artisan bread-making. He t e a c h e s p o p u l a r c l a s s e s o n everything from pizza-making to what he calls "backdoor boulan- gerie,"and he continues to hone his baking skills nearly every day. "I like the traditional ways of making bread and learning about traditional varieties of wheat," he said. "When you m a k e a r t i s a n b r e a d , y o u a r e more attentive to the product t h a n s i m p l y p u s h i n g d o u g h t h r o u g h a m a c h i n e . T h e r e ' s more skill involved. There's an awareness of the ingredients and the process." Currently, Essential Baking is e x p e r i m e n t i n g w i t h l o c a l l y grown and milled wheat, which provides a heartier, more flavor- f u l b r e a d , a c c o r d i n g t o DePasquale. Not surprisingly, the larger commercial farmers tend to grow only certain vari- RITA CIPALLA Essential Baking Company embodies the measure of success eties of wheat based on higher yields and ease of processing. Working with a regional agricul- tural laboratory, DePasquale hopes to encourage more local farmers to try different wheat varieties that offer more robust flavors. As part of this process, the company is working to build a flavor lexicon for bread, similar to the flavor wheels that exist for wine, coffee and beer. The idea is to create a standardized vocab- ulary and a frame of reference to document and describe the sen- sory perceptions provided by, in this case, a specific grain or flour. DePasquale has brought a fla- vor scientist on board to work with his staff, and the results have been eye-opening. In a r e c e n t t a s t i n g o f s o u r d o u g h bread, the Essential Baking team c o u l d d i s t i n c t l y t a s t e g r e e n apples in it where none existed. Other breads had notes of citrus, apples, pears or nuts. "We are working with six or seven taste categories, including salty, bit- ter, sour, fatty or dirty," said DePasquale. "Yes, you can actu- ally taste fat or dirt in a grain, depending on the fermentation process." T h e b a k i n g i n d u s t r y h a s weathered several challenges in recent years with more ahead. "Bread is no longer needed for sustenance as it was a century a g o , " s a i d D e P a s q u a l e . " W e have plenty of other things to eat. So if you are trying to lose weight, bread might be one of the first things you cut out. In addition, the public is more con- scious, and rightly so, about where their food comes from and how was it made. We are not as f o r g i v i n g a b o u t a d d i t i v e s o r chemicals in our food, either." This focus on authenticity and natural ingredients bodes w e l l f o r a c o m p a n y l i k e Essential Baking where even its d e l i v e r y f l e e t i s f u e l e d b y biodiesel. Much of the compa- ny's success comes from taking the time to educate customers about the value of good grain, t r a d i t i o n a l p r o d u c t i o n t e c h - niques, and a more full-bodied taste. As celebrity chef Julia Child once remarked, only partly in jest: "How can a nation be g r e a t i f i t s b r e a d t a s t e s l i k e Kleenex?" Essential Baking co-founder George DePasquale loves sharing his passion for making bread, whether with customers in one of the company's four cafes or in one of his popular baking classes. (Cara Kennedy Photography) SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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