The staff of life

In France, bakers are being encouraged to return to the traditional methods of breadmaking to enhance the quality of the loaves they produce.

FEW know good bread as Pascal Auriat does. Every morning at 2.30am, when most of France is fast asleep, Pascal warms up his ovens and loads them with loaves that have spent the night fermenting, a slow and crucial process in making good bread. After baking for an hour at 240°C, he would throw open the oven doors and extract golden loaves of bread that have a unique texture and taste.