Baking bread with Berkley
A few months ago, fellow blogger Olena Heu took me to an un-birthday dinner at Vintage Cave. It was my first time trying the restaurant since Jonathan Mizukami took over as executive chef, so it was pretty cool to taste his talent, as well as the talents of the new staff.
During dinner at Vintage Cave, you can try Berkley Spivey’s bread service.
The week that we went was the debut of their new bread service, created by head baker Berkley Spivey. The breads are all small, so you can try all five or just one or two. But like everything else in Vintage Cave, these aren’t ordinary breads. They’ve got a gorgeous chewiness, and they have distinct flavors — all bready, but you can taste the unique grains featured in each.
The grains and flours that Berkley Spivey uses.
Olena arranged for me to meet Berkley to see what goes into the breads he makes and the philosophy behind making breads that have flavors and textures. Since we had to get over the holidays, we finally got together in the kitchen recently and he walked us through his grains, flours and starters. As you’ll see in the video below, he studied extensively to find the items he uses, even ancient grains.
Jonathan Mizukami slicing one of Berkley Spivey’s loaves.
“The first time you eat real grain bread it is a revolution,” he said, and explained that a lot of the flour used in commercial bread today is stored in a warehouse for a long time … so by the time it is used in baking, it’s essentially a dead product. He uses living grains and starters, and even has plans to start his own little mill in Vintage Cave.
“We’ll order whole grain and mill it in-house before it goes into the bread so it’s super fresh,” he said. “It’s like the concept of fresh-cracked pepper — fresh cracked grain for your bread tastes so much fresher.”
Berkley Spivey’s experiments with larger loaves (see video).
Since they bake their bread fresh daily and don’t turn as many tables as other restaurants, production is limited — which is why the little breads work. Eventually, though, there may be a place for larger loaves, so diners can really appreciate the special textures of his products.
Foie gras and brioche at Vintage Cave.
The one bread item that isn’t miniature is the brioche, which they serve with their foie gras. This is a new presentation that Jonathan is doing — instead of covering the foie with a layer of fat, he uses a layer of gelee. Still delicious, just lighter.
Berkley Spivey in the kitchen at Vintage Cave, smelling a fresh-baked loaf of bread out of the oven.
Berkley is also experimenting with different techniques, which will hopefully make it to the Vintage Cave dinner tables. He’s made a smoked sprouted rye bread that has a very bold, unique flavor.
Unsalted butter, made in-house at Vintage Cave.
“We get our dairy from Naked Cow Dairy and make our butter in-house, about a pound and a half a day,” Berkeley said.
Here’s Berkley in the kitchen at Vintage Cave:
Tasting Berkley Spivey’s breads alongside commercial ones.
Just for fun, we brought breads from commercial bakeries (I won’t say which ones!) to taste side by side with his fresh breads. I knew the difference would be obvious, but not that much! Comparitively, the commercial breads had no flavor or texture. Even breads that we might usually like because they’re “fluffy,” were not really so nicely airy after all. That loaf on the right was almost like cardboard by comparison.
And, yes, as you know, I don’t like to eat crust. I did end up eating most of the crust on two of Berkley’s breads, especially the one with the sesame seeds, since they were tasty. Since Berkley is into breads, he was able to diagnose me like a doctor: “You probably don’t like the bitterness in crusts.” And he was right. I never thought of the crusts as bitter, but they can be, and that’s a flavor profile that I know a lot of you like.
Since our bread lesson, I’ve had a hard time eating the stuff from the store (I shamefully let half a loaf go moldy because I couldn’t bring myself to eat the rest of it). I can’t bake Pillsbury biscuits, because I can smell the chemicals as soon as the can opens. It’s amazing to realize what kinds of food Americans put into their mouths, and actually have learned to enjoy. Realistically, I know we can’t go to Vintage Cave all the time or just order bread from them. But if you do go, be sure to try all the breads. They will change your palate.
The first time I had Berkley’s bread was at my un-birthday dinner back in October. So much time has passed and I’ve changed purses since then, so I don’t have the menu to tell you what every dish is. But the menu is constantly changing; when you look at what people are eating now, it’s very different from what I had months ago. In any case, here are the photos, with selected descriptions:
To see all photos from our day in the kitchen, click here.
