Special things always come from simple ingredients. Like the project "Bran" of the young baker, former photographer, Vladimir German which he found in bread his vocation. After 4 years of studies and experiments, the opportunity arrives with the first lockdown: with more free time, the former photographer has started to produce more bread and experiment with leavened products, up to opening a page Instagram to see people's reaction to a completely different product than the classic one. From the one with potatoes cooked in their skins and einkorn wheat, to sandwich bread with polenta, semolina, toasted pumpkin seeds up to chocolate bread for those with a sweet tooth. The country loaf (which takes its name from the project) is made with type 2 flour, einkorn wheat, enkir, rye, wheat, buckwheat, barley, oats, millet, chamomile flowers and, finally, dried elderflowers collected from They. The only rule? Never use refined white flour, only flours 1 and 2 and above all the wholemeal ones, then the grains are ground personally for any additions.
And it doesn't end there. There are focaccias made with mixed cereal flour, while for sweet lovers there is the limited production of babka brioche with salted caramel and carrot cake. One of the most successful results is the French-style brioche with einkorn spelled, soft wheat, farmer's butter, tonka bean and lime for a tart note.
Behind the flavors of his leavened products there is the memory and knowledge of his grandparents and their farm Belarus, where Vladimir himself spent his childhood before moving to Italy with his family. They took care of the orchard and, as per local tradition, they smoked everything. And this practice has also led her to her bread-making technique.
The Turin bakery is joined by the recent one Val Varaita laboratory, in the province of Cuneo, in collaboration with his friend Juri chiotti. He will help him on weekends at the restaurant of the new Reis, Mountain Agricultural Food, and in Frassino he will open a small laboratory to supply bread not only to Reis in his new Occitan headquarters but also to other businesses in the area, reserving only 2 days for deliveries in Turin per week.
But Vladimir is not the first photographer to have had "love at first sight" with bread-making, Christian Puglisi has become one of the best-known bakers in Northern Europe, a mentor for the young Belarusian. His first job took him to travel all over Europe until he started working in the restaurant of a friend of his in San Salvario. He initially tried to practice both professions, then choosing to enroll in cooking school. First six months to The Calandres with the Alajmo brothers where the spark was struck thanks to Puglisi. During the "Gelinaz" event, the kermesse during which great chefs from all over the world mingle for an evening in the kitchens of their colleagues, Christian from Relae in Copenhagen arrived with his bread. Once back in Turin, he began experimenting and studying hard to create an innovative, tasty and sophisticated product. Until the summer of the pandemic he spent a few weeks in one of Warsaw's most avant-garde micro bakeries, learning from Monika Walecka.
