Bread Matters

By Andrew Whitley
Andrews McMeel, $34.99, 373 pages

It is not often that one reads an “activist” manifesto which includes baking squiggles, humor and a throng of mouth-watering recipes. British baker and entrepreneur Andrew Whitley informs the reader of his long-held peeve against industrial, “cheap” breads worldwide, yet he manages to prove his many points in a rather sane–even scientific–fashion.

Building a statistical bulwark in the first chapter, the author artfully pulls the reader into the swirling circle of events which caused him to open his own “real bread” bakery in the late ’70s. Cited foremost was the general lack of interest in England for “good bread”–bread without “industrial” additives that apparently cause severe digestive issues and food allergies; emphasized with tact is the importance of making one’s own bread using local, sustainable grains and also a natural fermentation process, which allows bread to be healthfully digestible.

Whitley penned this book with zeal, taking care to include wry observations on eating habits and just a bit of fun with his “illogical” recipe directions. If the many cited studies, specialist opinions and data were not enough to convince readers of why they should enter the pleasant realm of bread-baking, the tried-and-true recipes and hunger-inducing photographs should send consumers scampering to the natural food section of their markets for stone-ground whole grains and various natural mix-ins. Whitley makes such treats as holiday Stollen or the often-elusive “sourdough’ attainable for even the average kitchen.

Reviewed by Meredith Greene