Hello. Cook here from Toronto, Canada.
Hey there.
Wanted to intro myself as I have been googling bread queries for the last while and The Fresh Loaf keeps popping up. Generally I'm looking for answers to "why did I mess up?" and "How did I mess up?. I work in the restaurant industry and now with the virus going on I've had more time to work on my own baking/cooking to hone in on my craft. I recently ordered a few bags of fresh milled flour (bread, rye, red fife, pastry) from a local miller and am in the process of understanding working with it while forever chasing the dream sourdough in the sky with the right balance of airiness and density.
Generally I'm a big fan of large crusty loafs that create a wholesome experience to eat and make but I bet that's not much of a surprise to many of you. Food, especially bread with it's connection to an ancient world, is such an emotional journey to bake and to share with others. It's hard not to get sentimental about cutting into the perfect loaf Saturday morning and eating it with butter with family.
It has been very helpful coming here as pretty much any problem I've had someone has asked about.
Any other folks in the industry out there?
Nice to meet all of you.
but an observation. I'm in Austria and we have had our restaurants open now for a week but business is very slow. People are just too scared or too bothered to make the reservations that are required. Especially if it is raining. Outside seating seems to be preferred. I want to go out to eat today but hubby finds every excuse not to. Notes that the general reaction to eating out has been greatly subdued everywhere.
There are even jokes made. "Well if you are so scared, thats even a better excuse to go out and eat well." (Eat, drink and be merry....)
Welcome to TFL!
I can imagine. My restaurant has been closed since march and with restrictions up and coming where places can only operate at a certain capacity, I have no idea how the small mom-and-pop places will stay open once they are allowed to reopen. On the the other hand, this crisis has widen the cracks within the system. The price of food as well as the system of running a restaurant in the first place seems unsustainable if it needs to operate at a full dining room in order to stay open. The cost that doesn't pass to the diner comes out of the paychecks of cooks who sometimes don't make enough money to pay for the food they spend years making.
Anyway, I could go on and on about it. Thanks for the welcome. Stay safe.
Hi Pablo
I’m a fellow Torontonian, but no the in the food industry, but wanted to welcome you to TFL. Also wondering what local mill you were able to order flour from?
Benny
Thanks!
I'm buying from Stone Flour Millings. It's made in a small, family run farm in Fergus, Ontario I believe. You can order online from them but I took about 2 weeks for my order to arrive because of demand at the time. It's a bit more expensive then Robin Hood but you'll be getting whole grain, unbleached, organic and nutritious flour as well as supporting a local farm.
I've been using it exclusively for my sourdoughs, rye/red fife breads and it's taste is pretty exciting.
For any AP flour I generally get unbleached AP from Bulk Barn which I use mainly for feeding my starter though.
Thanks for the information on Stone Flour Millings, I’ll have a look for them. I’ve been buying most of my flour for baking sourdough from 4 Life Natural Foods in Kensington Market. The bulk flours are organic from Maryland Farms located in Lakefield Ontario but I do purchase some flour from the bulk barn as well since they are closer to home when I’m in a pinch.
Best of luck in your endeavors.
Benny