The trendiest bread in Paris: “Pain à la mode”

I do not think of myself as a trendsetter, but recently I collided head-on with one of the hottest trends in Paris. “Pane Vivo,” bread as a statement of all that’s best in life. That seems a lot to ask of a loaf of bread, but these days young bakers in Paris are combining the baking of bread with philosophy, law, and environmental science.

I did not seek out this trend, nor was I even looking for a loaf of bread. I was simply strolling in my neighborhood when I was offered a sample by a very aggressive saleswoman who, while I chewed, explained to me the virtues of “pane vivo,” living bread, a new product rooted in the past, focused on the future.

I was standing outside “The Bread Lab” (in English), 49, rue de Chine, in the 20^th district of Paris, a fifteen-minute walk from where I live. The bread, “Pane Vivo,” is the creation of Adriano Farano, a 41-year-old Italian and a very unconventional baker who travelled a long and winding road before, in 2020, setting out to produce what he believes to be “the best bread in the world.”

Adriano began life as a child on the Amalfitano coast south of Naples. At a young age, he became interested in journalism and politics. As a student of political science in Strasbourg, France, in 2001, he created an on-line participative magazine in six languages, the first of its kind in Europe.

From there, he moved on to Stanford University, where he had a 10-month research grant that turned into a 9-year stay in the United States. While in the Bay Area, he was dismayed because he couldn’t find a good loaf of bread for his French wife and their three children, so he decided to make his own. He even built a brick oven in his garden. His recipe? Flour, bread, salt and water, a good pair of hands and the muscle power to knead the dough.

When his wife’s mother fell ill, the family returned to France and Adriano put his entrepreneurial skills to work once again. In California, he’d fallen in love with bread-making. In France, he decided to turn his passion into a business and that’s how “Pane Vivo” was born in September 2020.

“Living bread,” according to Adriano Farano, should nourish both body and spirit. He claims that the food we eat, be it bread or anything else, should be chosen in light of its impact on our health and the environment. Farano bakes his bread with this philosophy in mind.   

First, he chooses his flour carefully, working with an agronomist and a biochemist. They have studied samples of flour from all over Europe. For “pane vivo,” Farano uses stone-ground Russello organic durum wheat flour, grown in Sicily, the same durum wheat used in the making of pasta. It is an ancient variety requiring lots of sun and three times less water than soft wheat varieties.

Farano also uses live yeast starter, never baker’s yeast. It’s the difference between lactic and alcoholic fermentation. Live yeast enables the body to assimilate all the bread’s nutrients. Baker’s yeast, the kind used in most breads, makes digestion more difficult. Russello wheat flour contains an easily digestible gluten, even for those with gluten intolerance.

But how does the bread taste? That’s the most important question, the only selling point for me.

Initially, I was not convinced. First of all, I was put off by the price: €7.25 euros or $8.50 for a pound of bread (500 grams). And then there were the names, pretentious in my book: Sapiens, Scheherazade, Esmerelda. This is bread we’re talking about! 

Yet, chewing that first bite, I had to admit, the bread was dense and delicious, nutty, slightly sweet, with the texture of moist, chewy cake. I paid the price and was handed my first loaf. At home, I discovered that toasted, the bread does not burn or crisp around the edges; it simply takes on deeper flavor. Wrapped in a cloth, stored in a breadbox, it lasts for a week, retaining its fresh taste right down to the last crumb. Since that first chance encounter, I’ve become a regular though I’ll admit, the price still makes me wince.

Adriano Farano opened his bakery just as France went into quarantine, but that has not prevented success. He and his bakery have been on prime-time TV and articles about them have appeared everywhere, in the major dailies and on-line. Pane Vivo has become a trend, one I discovered by chance.

Recently I stumbled across another bakery and another excellent organic bread. The bakery, Le Petit Grain, The Little Kernel, was created by Edward Delling-Williams in 2018, once again, not far from where I live. Like Adriano Farano, Delling-Williams is not a traditional baker and the road from his home in Bristol, England to a backstreet in the Belleville section of Paris, has taken a few surprising turns.

Today Delling-Williams, who has been interested in cooking since childhood, would define himself as a chef. However, as a young man, he studied law. In France, he became interested in immigration law, and his policy in his bakery is to hire asylum seekers and immigrants in general. When among them he finds a talented baker, as he did in one man from Sri Lanka, he puts him in charge.

In 2016, Delling-Williams opened a “neo-bistro”, Le Grand Bain, in rue Denoyez in Belleville. In 2018, a couple of steps away, he opened his bakery, where besides organic loaves, he sells simple pastries. The delicious cinnamon roll would find many fans in Schuylkill County.

Today Edward Delling-Williams is chef at a restaurant called “Buffet” in the 11^th district of Paris. Much like Farano in his baking, Delling-Williams puts his philosophy into practice in his cooking. He uses “farm-to-table” products and respects his co-workers and the environment. The last time I went to his bakery for a loaf of whole-grain bread, I was served by a woman from Russia’s Ural Mountains.

Adriano Farano and Edward Delling-Williams, neither French by birth, represent a new breed of baker in a country where bread truly is the staff of life. Neither sells the traditional baguette, but these two trendsetters have created an excellent loaf of bread. It has earned their bakeries a place among the best in France.