At the fine dining temple L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas, where the 16-course tasting menu goes for $425, an unlikely product is coveted by high rollers: bread. “All the billionaires who come to play request bread for their private jets on the way home,” says Robuchon, who has amassed 31 Michelin stars over his career for dishes that go far beyond the bakery.
In the fall, Robuchon brought those loaves to New York, when he and his head baker of 20 years, Tetsuya Yamaguchi, opened a L’Atelier in Chelsea. Robuchon thinks this might be the best bread in his empire. “The water in New York City is the best,” the chef notes. Among the selections in the basket on tables are mini-baguettes, cheese bread, and branch-shaped epi loaf. Yamaguchi’s breads are exquisite, airy and sturdy with an unusually intense flavor of fresh wheat.
It’s a momentous time for bread in America. That’s especially satisfying, given the years it spent as a bad word in our diet vocabulary: High carb! High gluten! Unhealthy! Sure, plenty of foods are reaching new heights these days: From coffee to chocolate and butter, the country’s level of culinary connoisseurship continues to rise, as does the amount of money people are willing to pay for them. Yet it’s bread that’s standing out right now. Compare it to the best fried chicken, the best bowl of noodles you’ve had recently. Great bread is truly everywhere.
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