Gilles Pudlowski singles out BO&MIE’s breads

A few months after Louvre-Rivoli opened, Gilles Pudlowski devotes a column to BO&MIE.

The critic retraces the story of Magali Szekula and Jean-François Bandet, how they met at Ferrandi and the first three Paris addresses. But it is the breads that hold his attention.

Rye, spelt, country loaf

Rye bread, spelt, country loaf, apricot and cranberry bread: he highlights the sourdough work carried out by the teams. The baguette is singled out for its thin crust and open crumb — two things that only come with time.

A bakery first

This column matters for a simple reason: it points to what the press shows least. Pastries and viennoiseries photograph well and travel fast; bread does not. Yet it demands the most craft, and it is bread that decides what a bakery is.

The flours, mostly Label Rouge, are blended by the bakers on site. The details are in our know-how.

The starter, for its part, can’t be ordered in: it has to be kept. It needs feeding every day, the room temperature taken into account, and the fermentation allowed to take the time it takes. It is the part of the trade that resists organisation the most, and also the one you taste most clearly.