I have a beautiful book, "The Taste of France". The book is a compilation of magazine articles from "The London Sunday Times Magazine". It's a gourmand tour of the different regions of France.....
published in 1983.
I realized one of the photos is "Below stairs at Poilane, in the rue du Cherche-Midi".
Boulanger Michel Lory is sliding Poilane Miche into the wood burning oven with several dozen loaves proofing behind him .....and what does Michel Lory wear working for the very prestigious Poilane???
In the photo Michel is wearing only a pair of jogging shorts.....nothing else. I would guess that the downstairs area is perfect for proofing the famous Poilane Miche!
of this great bread. I don't think they work like that in France anymore these days. Have you ever wondered how to make wine out of grapes? And what to wear then?
Cheers,
Jw.
Actually, I received email from Reinhart who visited Poilane's factory, and he said the bakers still wear shorts, and some wear shirts! I am just imagining/fantasizing, but everything I've read about Poilane is very organic. I imagine his bakery with the wood burning stoves, and boulangers working as much with hands as possible, and his factory has a dozen or so (one for each baker) wood burning stoves.....they probably don't use proof boxes, and rely on the ambient heat of the bakery stall......shorts are probably the style in Poilane world......
Interesting! I hope to be able to visit that place one day. I saw a video recently that mentions Poilane's : http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html
I must have seen the presentation before, but I missed this part of it. I did remember how difficult it was to get the world to become interested in sliced bread (I am not...)