This Loaf Changed American Bread, with Chad Robertson
5/18/202658 min
Today, we’re dedicating a whole episode to a single loaf of bread. But not just any bread: the loaf from San Francisco’s Tartine bakery, which kicked off a sourdough revolution in the States.
David and Jessica start the show by unpacking just what made Tartine and its bread so influential; together, they dig into the ways this loaf's impact continues to resonate today, plus their own personal relationships to it. Then, Jessica is joined by Tartine’s Chad Roberston, who shares his baking journey, the myriad inspirations that shaped his bread baking, and his thoughts on sourdough today. Finally, they answer some of your biggest sourdough questions before closing the show with this week’s Jess-opinion and the recipes they’re baking.
Recipes and other links from this episode:
Pick up a copy of Tartine Bread and Tartine No. 3 (which Jessica cowrote!)
Follow Chad Robertson and his work on Instagram
Inspired to bake? Order a sourdough starter or make your own
Read Carla Lalli’s newsletter, Food Processing
Bake our Pain de Campagne recipe
Learn more about autolyse
What David’s baking this week: Chocolate Sourdough Babka
What Jessica’s baking this week: Creamy Coconut Sheet Cake
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here!
This episode is sponsored by Brød & Taylor. Your best bread is within reach. Brød & Taylor builds tools that help you get there. See what's possible at brodandtaylor.com.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDavid Tamarkin· Host0:00
This episode is sponsored by Brod & Taylor, makers of the new countertop dough sheeter built to elevate every bake ahead. [upbeat music] When I hear country bread, I think of ye old country [laughs] [laughs] From King Arthur Baking Company, this is Things Bakers Know. I'm David Tamarkin, King Arthur's editorial director.
Jessica Battilana· Host0:20
And I'm Jessica Battaglini, senior editor at King Arthur, and today we're talking about the bread that changed the way Americans think about bread.
David Tamarkin· Host0:30
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Battilana· Host0:30
Specifically, this episode is all about San Francisco's Tartine Bakery, Chad Robertson, and the country loaf that launched 1,000 loaves.
David Tamarkin· Host0:38
[upbeat music] [timer dings] That's not an exaggeration. It really is thousands and thousands of loaves. Um, and I'm really glad we're talking about this because it's been 16 years since Chad wrote his seminal book, Tartine Bread. Uh, and in that time, we've seen a huge shift in how American bread, uh, is made, is talked about, is even just thought of.
Jessica Battilana· Host1:02
Yeah.
David Tamarkin· Host1:02
Um, and we, we really can trace a lot of that back to Chad Robertson and the bread he was making at Tartine, uh, I think ever since they opened in 2002.
Jessica Battilana· Host1:12
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and, and this is the first time we've done an episode that's sort of like laser focused on one place and one person.
David Tamarkin· Host1:17
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Battilana· Host1:18
Um, but it seemed like an obvious thing to do, especially when we saw that the anniversary of the book was coming up. It was sort of like, how can we not talk about this? 'Cause it really did change everything.
David Tamarkin· Host1:27
Yeah.
Jessica Battilana· Host1:27
And I was looking back at a 2016