I work in an intimate setting. Undisturbed by customers, undisturbed by actual time, I spend huge po

I work in an intimate setting.

Undisturbed by customers, undisturbed by actual time, I spend huge portions of my weeks in this room, with these men. As a team we shape, we proof, we bake brioche and we score the crusted, domed tops of pan loaves.

This job is the most challenging facet of my life. It pushes me to learn, to reason, to remember with my fingertips and the palm of my hand. I smell and taste and observe the viscosity of sourdough starters. I knead, I measure, I mix. I add water in steady streams to dough that is warming around a giant hook. I watch as salt changes, in a manner of seconds the gloss and pliability of flour plus water plus pre ferment.

I listen to the conversations around me, the words that these people, with their years of experience have to share. I listen and I remember and I build my arsenal. My education could never end in this profession, and my amazement in the subtleties that come with great baking; great proofing;great mixing and great shaping could never diminish.