Modernist BreadCrumbs – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, we’re exploring the intersection of bread and art, and the idea of bread as art. From Renaissance paintings of The Last Supper (complete with pretzels) and still lifes from the Dutch Golden Age to scoring videos on Instagram—the aesthetics of bread, and all that it symbolizes, have long been on display.

We'll look for bread in art history with Maite Gomez-Rejon (founder of Art Bites), consider the influence of art on baking with an interview from HRN Happy Hour featuring head chef of Modernist Cuisine Francisco Migoya and author Daniel Isengart, talk about craft with baker (and former ceramic artist) Sarah Owens, weigh bread's artistic value with Guy Frenkel of Ceor Bread, and find out how co-authors Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, tackled bread's beige aesthetics when writing Modernist Bread.

Photo Credit: Nathan Myhrvold/ The Cooking Lab, LLC.

Theme Music: Thomas Hughes & Gretchen Lohse (@carolclevelandsings)

Modernist BreadCrumbs is powered by Simplecast.

It’s a season of celebration, and no matter what you’re celebrating, that usually means baking. Sweet or savory, traditional or cutting-edge, more people fire up their ovens during the holiday season than any other time of the year. In this episode, we're exploring holiday breads and the traditions that bring us back to them, year after year.

We'll talk Stollen with Brian Hart Hoffman of Bake From Scratch, Challah with Mike Zaro of Zaro's Bakery, and Pandoro vs Panettone with Italian baker Luigi Biasetto. Co-authors of Modernist Bread, Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, help us figure out what the holiday hoopla is all about—is it just nostalgia, or something deeper?

Photo Credit: The Cooking Lab, LLC.

Theme Music: Thomas Hughes & Gretchen Lohse (@carolclevelandsings)

Modernist BreadCrumbs is powered by Simplecast.

This is Episode Seven of Modernist BreadCrumbs: "Thermal Mass," on baking and ovens.

We’ll discuss “thermal mass," or the ability to absorb and hold heat, in two-parts: within bread itself, and the ovens it's baked in. It’s a complex physicochemical process… that’s more than just hot air.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is a special collaborative podcast series with Heritage Radio Network and Modernist Cuisine, that takes a fresh look at one of the oldest staples of the human diet—bread. Although it may seem simple, bread is much more complex than you think.

From the microbes that power fermentation to the economics of growing grain, there’s a story behind every loaf. Each episode will reveal those stories and more, beginning with bread’s surprising and often complicated past, from the perspective of people who are passionate about bread, and shaping its future.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is powered by Simplecast

This is Episode Six of Modernist BreadCrumbs: “Balls & Sticks,” on shapes, scoring, and semiotics.

Balls & sticks. You’ll hear this idiom over and over in this episode, as if we’re talking in circles. The two shapes' repetitive figures have been a constant in bread’s identity over time, but why?

Modernist BreadCrumbs is a special collaborative podcast series with Heritage Radio Network and Modernist Cuisine, that takes a fresh look at one of the oldest staples of the human diet—bread. Although it may seem simple, bread is much more complex than you think.

From the microbes that power fermentation to the economics of growing grain, there’s a story behind every loaf. Each episode will reveal those stories and more, beginning with bread’s surprising and often complicated past, from the perspective of people who are passionate about bread, and shaping its future.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is powered by Simplecast

This is Episode Five of Modernist BreadCrumbs: “Against the Grain,” on politics.

How does bread play a part in politics you ask? Withholding grain has been part of party lines as well as a catalyst of war. Though the fight still continues to bring bread to those impoverished and underfed around the world, we urge you to chew on this: become as active as a sourdough starter, and be part of the bread revolution. Rise up!

Modernist BreadCrumbs is a special collaborative podcast series with Heritage Radio Network and Modernist Cuisine, that takes a fresh look at one of the oldest staples of the human diet—bread. Although it may seem simple, bread is much more complex than you think.

From the microbes that power fermentation to the economics of growing grain, there’s a story behind every loaf. Each episode will reveal those stories and more, beginning with bread’s surprising and often complicated past, from the perspective of people who are passionate about bread, and shaping its future.

Music by Thomas Hughes and Gretchen Lohse

Modernist BreadCrumbs is powered by Simplecast

This is Episode Four of Modernist BreadCrumbs: “Milling About,” History Part II, Pre-Industrialization.

When we look back on how modern baking came to be, it’s the same old story of craft informing art, and how the artisanal approach was replicated through the aid of mechanization. This episode picks up where Episode One left off, telling bread's life story from All Purpose to Zopf.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is a special collaborative podcast series with Heritage Radio Network and Modernist Cuisine, that takes a fresh look at one of the oldest staples of the human diet—bread. Although it may seem simple, bread is much more complex than you think.

From the microbes that power fermentation to the economics of growing grain, there’s a story behind every loaf. Each episode will reveal those stories and more, beginning with bread’s surprising and often complicated past, from the perspective of people who are passionate about bread, and shaping its future.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is powered by Simplecast

This is Episode Three of Modernist BreadCrumbs: “On the Rise,” on yeast, leavening, and fermentation.

Here, we observe a microscopic single-celled organism from the fungi kingdom, and its full effect on bread: yeast. How can something so small make such a big impact? When it comes to bread, the proof really is in the proofing.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is a special collaborative podcast series with Heritage Radio Network and Modernist Cuisine, that takes a fresh look at one of the oldest staples of the human diet—bread. Although it may seem simple, bread is much more complex than you think.

From the microbes that power fermentation to the economics of growing grain, there’s a story behind every loaf. Each episode will reveal those stories and more, beginning with bread’s surprising and often complicated past, from the perspective of people who are passionate about bread, and shaping its future.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is powered by Simplecast

This is Episode Two of Modernist BreadCrumbs: “The Great Civilizations of Grain,” on grains, flour, and milling.

In this episode, we look inside with a kernel of knowledge, sprout ancient grains, and take a journey through wheat’s history. We could go on for flours.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is a special collaborative podcast series with Heritage Radio Network and Modernist Cuisine, that takes a fresh look at one of the oldest staples of the human diet—bread. Although it may seem simple, bread is much more complex than you think.

From the microbes that power fermentation to the economics of growing grain, there’s a story behind every loaf. Each episode will reveal those stories and more, beginning with bread’s surprising and often complicated past, from the perspective of people who are passionate about bread, and shaping its future.

Nathan Myhrvold and Michael Harlan Turkell kick off Modernist BreadCrumbs, their new podcast series on Heritage Radio Network, with a special conversation about the future of bread. Myhrvold will share insights from his new 5-volume book Modernist Bread (on sale November 7, 2017), the inspiration behind the podcast, as well as what the Modernist Cuisine team learned over four years of nonstop research, photography, experiments, writing and baking. From its surprising history to the complex science behind every loaf, this discussion will reveal why we need to take a fresh look at one of the oldest staples of the human diet.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is powered by Simplecast

This is Episode One of Modernist BreadCrumbs: "Pre-ferment," on the history of bread.

Modernist BreadCrumbs is a special collaborative podcast series with Heritage Radio Network and Modernist Cuisine, that takes a fresh look at one of the oldest staples of the human diet—bread. Although it may seem simple, bread is much more complex than you think.

From the microbes that power fermentation to the economics of growing grain, there’s a story behind every loaf. Each episode will reveal those stories and more, beginning with bread’s surprising and often complicated past, from the perspective of people who are passionate about bread, and shaping its future.

In this episode, we take a look at ancient drawings on cave walls, dig through the ashes of a volcano eruption, and consider the primal evolution of bread as we know it. We hope you'll loaf it.