OP: The Taste of Bread

An Aspen Publication, 2001. Hardcover. Fine. First printing, thus. Raymond Calvel (1913–2005) was a dominating authority on breadmaking. Having begun a baking apprenticeship at 17 in his hometown of Tarn in southern France, he went on to train at Paris’s École des Grands Moulins and did further studies in milling at the center now known as École Nationale Supérieure de Meunerie et des Industries Céréalières.  By the time he was 25 he was writing technical articles on milling and flour quality. Calvel’s experience and research in breadmaking made him not only surpassingly analytical but enabled him to propose practical solutions to the challenges and nuances of the process.  The Taste of Bread (2001)⁠—the English translation of the original Le Goût du Pain (1990)⁠—is Calvel’s seminal work on the science and technique behind traditional French breads. It is by no means a cookbook but a detailed technical manual written with the hands-on expertise of a master.  The first section of the bo