El Paso is a tortilla-loving town, any way you slice it. "Corn or flour" is asked much more often than "wheat or white" at area restaurants, where "red or green" is usually the next question. For the most part, El Pasoans are just not very picky about leavened loaves.
However, in major cities such as New York or San Francisco, restaurants' and chefs' reputations can rest on the quality of the bread basket. Bakers have groupies. If it's not artisanal, it's abysmal.
Artisan bread, previously a niche product, has made its way into the zeitgeist in the past decade or so. In the past, to be considered "artisanal," a baker had to mix and form the bread by hand, supply a long fermentation time and bake it on a solid hearth.
Now, however, automation has helped artisan bread take off nationally. La Brea Bakery, a California bakery that sells par-baked breads through grocers nationwide, sold $102 million worth of artisan-style bread in 2010, according to AIB International, a baking industry group.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: El Paso Times
