Real restaurant bread
Let’s not talk about how bread was considered uncool for a while. Bread has now become so restaurant-worthy that more and more restaurants are starting their own bakeries. Like Café Modern in Amsterdam, led by baker Florence Gramende.
There are some great examples, such as baker Eef from restaurant AS in Amsterdam. For years, he has not only sold homemade bread at the restaurant door on Fridays, but also supplies the crème de la crème of Amsterdam’s hospitality industry with sourdough for their bread baskets, from Café Caron to Circl.
De Superette
Another example is De Superette in Ghent, where American baker Sarah Lemke has achieved worldwide fame and a following of international fans with her wood-fired bread baked on site. Restaurants such as Relae in Copenhagen also have an in-house bakery that bakes both for their own establishment and others, as well as for customers at the door.
Since this month (March 2018), Café Modern in Amsterdam-Noord has joined them. It was founded by the people behind legendary hospitality venues such as Hotel de Goudfazant and FC Hyena. Florence Gramende (28; born in France to Dutch parents), who trained as a chef, still spends one day a week in the kitchen, while she makes the bread with two assistants the rest of the time. Sourdough, naturally. Cold-fermented for around 24 to 48 hours. For now, 50 loaves a day go to their own restaurants, but also, for example, to wine/coffeebar 4850 and wine bar Binnenvisser. Through the new bread counter at the front of Café Modern, the bread is also sold to passers-by for € 6.50 per loaf.
Relae sourdough starter
Florence learned to bake bread during her training at the Ballymaloe organic cookery school founded by Irish pioneer Darina Allen. She joined Café Modern as a chef, but felt that if you devote so much attention to all your ingredients, it is strange not to make your own bread. Owner Niels Wouters agreed. She was allowed to start a small bakery in the middle of the restaurant. She took over the old bread oven from restaurant AS and brought back a sourdough starter from an internship at restaurant Relae in Copenhagen, which she guards with her life.
A rustic loaf with moist yet airy crumb and a crisp, dark crust.
Florence Gramende: ‘I do everything by feel, I don’t measure acidity levels and so on, which means I could never handle mass production. My bread is fairly simple. White sourdough with a little whole wheat. That’s best for restaurants, because too much whole wheat makes it too heavy to serve with a meal. A rustic, robust loaf with a slightly moist yet airy crumb and a crisp, dark crust. No bits and pieces such as raisins. I make what I personally like best.’
A separate bread course
Gramende would love to see a separate bread course during dinner, as at Noma or Relae, so that guests can truly enjoy it mindfully instead of merely killing time with the bread. Florence: ‘I like to eat my bread fresh with butter and sea salt best. Also delicious: briefly grilling it in a grill pan with olive oil for a little smoky flavor. Then rub it with a clove of garlic and eat it with chicken livers and thyme.’
Image: Marjan Ippel
