Last Saturday, I attended Hot Bread Kitchen‘s Women Bake Bread, an all-day artisan bread workshop led by NYC’s premier women head bakers. Hot Bread Kitchen is a non-profit organization that helps low-income and immigrant women learn the necessary skills to launch food businesses and find positions in food manufacturing.
About 50 aspiring bakers and bread lovers attended this fantastic event, which was packed with hands-on workshops, demos, and tastings.
During the roundtable discussion, the bakers encouraged more women to get into the “noble profession” of bread baking. As one of the bakers suggested, “Everyone write Tom Colicchio and tell him we want Top Bread!”
Even though I loved sampling all the bread (it was a veritable bread buffet!), the best part of Women Bake Bread was that it provided an opportunity for all the attendees to talk to these first-class bakers one-on-one. There were conversations about everything, from the best type of flour to use, to where the name Grandaisy Bakery came from (Daisy is the name of owner Monica Von Thun Calderon’s grandmother). Plus, to see these bakers in action was truly amazing — how do they make baguette-shaping look so easy?
Thanks to the talented bakers of Women Bake Bread! From left to right: Sarah Black of Fairway Market, Karen Bornarth of Le Pain Quotidien, Rhonda Crosson of the French Culinary Institute, Monica Von Thun Calderon of Grandaisy Bakery, Sharon Burns of Bread Alone, Jessamyn Rodriguez of Hot Bread Kitchen, and Amy Scherber of Amy’s Bread (not pictured).
Visit www.hotbreadkitchen.org for more information about Hot Bread Kitchen and their upcoming events.
