-Liza: Welcome everyone to "food.

curated.," a show that takes you behind-the-scenes to meet today's most inspiring food makers.

Stick around to explore deep cuts in New York's sourdough bread movement.

(upbeat music) I█m Liza de Guia, documentary filmmaker and food lover.

I invite you to discover the people and passion behind good food in New York City.

This is "food.

curated."

Funding for food.

curated.

is made possible by.

Stele is a globally curated collection of artisanal and independent perfumes.

Hand-picked olfactory experiences that tell a story.

Available online and at two New York locations.

For more info, we're at Stele (dot) nyc.

Support for food.

curated.

comes from CMD Psych.

Bringing a holistic approach to child wellness and women's mental health care.

Helping patients find balance and harmony in their lives.

For more info, head to CMD Psych (dot) com Additional Funding provided by.

Talk to any local baker, they'll tell you that sourdough is finally experiencing a renaissance in New York.

In the pandemic, people at home started baking bread from scratch for the first time.

And around the city, chefs are doubling down on their sourdough creations, adding that fermented touch to more than just country bread.

(upbeat music) (exciting music) - Tyler: Poppy's is gonna get these two bins.

Yeah.

Sorry, but Wednesday mornings are manic until a little bit later.

My fermentations are gonna go crazy.

Just disconcerting.

If you're owning and operating the bakery, then you're, like, so in a pit of trauma all the time about whether you're gonna sell enough bread.

In order to keep this business alive, I worked 14 hours, six days a week, nonstop, for two years.

Like, that's what this took.

It's really, like, pushing the limit.

It's like a bakery.

It's crazy.

But it gets better every day.

(gentle music) Hi, my name is Tyler Lee Steinbrenner, and I'm the founder and baker at Anti-Conquest Bread Co., or ACQ Bread Co., based in Brooklyn, New York.

I guess ACQ was supposed to kind of prove that you can be an independent maker and still exist on the terms that you set that don't rely on taking advantage of other people without compromising anything about the practice of it while still maintaining an engaging level of artistry, for myself at least.

And have it be sustainable.

It's fun 'cause also I care a lot about how I do everything.

It's all curated.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

You can tell.

- That's like the alchemy of science and empathy, I think.

I think it's really beautiful.

Like, it's so engaging for me.

It's like a living thing.

Like, you're touching this, like, amorphous, beautiful, beautifully structured, like, system of glutenous proteins that are holding living organisms that you've cultured over years and years.

Like, my starters are old.

So, like, all of it's contained in this, like, wildly feeling thing.

But then you, like, massage and manicure it over, like, 24 hours.

And then you make, like, a loaf of bread and you get to, like, give it to people.

Yeah, I think, like, feeding people should always be a gesture of care.

The point is, like, keeping it alive and caring for it and investing all of this emotion into it.

And then it continuously gives back to you so that you're in, like, a living relationship with something that feeds you.

And yeah, like, that's what I get to do every day at the bakery.

It's great.

I'm trying to learn gentleness from my practice to some degree 'cause I wasn't taught it in kit (upbeat music) So the menu at ACQ has, like, primarily existed off of two things for two years now, which were a wild-leavened milk bread, using a local organic milk.

The crumb, mine is custardy, which is not traditional at all.

Super simple Hokkaido style, so it's just about the milk flavor, really.

As well as kind of a country niche for ACQ sourdough.

I've probably, like, rebuilt the sourdough recipe here, like, a hundred times, maybe more.

I don't know.

(laughs) So this is ACQ's sourdough, and it uses the majority stone-milled flour, a blend of red fife, einkorn, Glenn, and redeemer.

Actually, that's, like, that's one of the better ones.

I don't like to engage in food practices unless it points directly to its sources of organic agriculture.

All the grains that I'm using in the bakery are from about a three-hour drive, generally, maximum, either in Pennsylvania or New York.

I mean, I grew up on, I hated wheat bread, like, whole wheat bread growing up.

And I recognize now it's because it was crap wheat.

Like, that's it.

(gentle music continues) We need full-spectrum food that comes out of the living ground with all of its macronutrients, all of this beautiful, rich soil.

That's what it should be.

And, like, what are we doing?

Yeah, recently, I released a new bread that I call Living Bread.

That was, like, kind of just thinking about life processes.

Do like a light soak on all of the seeds for the Living Bread to kind of wake them up.

These pumpkin seeds are the good stuff, though, which makes me happy.

It started with sprouting things because I wanted to put a living grain into the Living Bread for our well-being while living.

And then it expanded into adding seeds, like the generate, you know, the things that generate life.

So literally, like, that recipe was equal parts bread dough to seeds and sprouts.

And yeah, it just has, like, an overload of all of these stimuli that I think is, like, to me, when I taste it, I'm like, "Wow, this is, like, so active."

It's one of those, like, bites where you're like, "Oh, that's fireworks."

That was- - [Liza] Do people tell you you're being too idealistic?

- Tyler: I don't really listen to them if they do.

Like, I don't really care.

What would I do if it wasn't this way?

It sounds terrible.

(gentle music) The whole wheat flavors need the slower fermentation to develop the flavor to balance it.

But I definitely have feelings about long fermentation times, caramelization of the crust, an ephemeral crumb that kind of dissolves, but just, like, an extremely delicate, like, marshmallow.

Hopefully, like, if this bread is nourishing, which I hope it is, like, then, like, this, it doesn't just have to be about an investment, like, in myself or whatever.

Like, it can actually be an investment in community well-being, right?

And, like, that's what any good food project should be about, in my opinion.

(gentle music continues) (upbeat music) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) - James: Nice.

-[Liza] Oh, it's so pretty.

Look at that one in the back.

- Yeah.

- Like, so happy.

- James: Pita in New York, I find that a lot of it is just like pre-produced.

You know, nothing is straight out of the oven.

Nothing's full of steam when you get it, you know?

A lot of it is, like, sometimes it's good-quality pita, and it's usually, you know, stuffed sandwich-style or, you know, for the flatbread style.

But nothing was actually, like, "Okay, this is gonna be served with food in a sit-down restaurant, full of steam when it hits your table."

So I was, like, that was the concept there.

That's really important to me.

I was raised on, like, really crappy pita bread, so I just wanted to make something that's awesome, you know?

All right, why does pita have to be a throwaway or a giveaway, you know?

It should be something special.

Yeah, it should be celebrated, not just, like, here, this is what it is.

Yeah, concept, pretty cool.

It's Mediterranean, we call it, but it's really, you know, my heritage is Armenian Sicilian, so it's a mix of those two cultures for the most part.

So it's a lot of Italian, say, style food with Middle Eastern spices worked into it.

Working with my wife is definitely enjoyable.

We actually like each other, which is a huge part of working with your spouse.

Hey, James Ahearn, chef-owner of Pomp & Circumstance, serving Mediterranean cuisine in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

(upbeat music) (machine whirring) All right, so we are in the basement of Pomp & Circumstance with our dough mixer.

We're about to start a batch of rye pita, which will probably take us about halfway through the week.

We make two types of pita, so we do the seeded semolina and we do the rye.

We have our starter here, this is eight years old.

It's 166% hydrated just because so it doesn't grow.

So you don't need a lot of space to store it.

I wanted it easy to feed.

Super sour.

We love it.

That's the backbone.

Mixture of seeds.

So it's dill seed and caraway seed.

Then we have our flours, double zero Italian flour, and this is a medium rye.

We use a medium rye.

I just like the medium rye because it's not too dark in color.

It's a nice grain, which actually gives, like, a really stickiness to the bread.

It's really soft once it's baked.

(gentle music) My favorite part of the day is actually my pita time in the morning.

It's a solid hour and a half a day of just pita.

You know, I walk in, it's pita time.

You know, I'm rolling all the dough, portioning everything, you know?

Feeding starters and whatnot.

And then it's, like, starting my day.

All right, this is what a good spot where we're at right now.

See, this looks like one bowl of dough, and it's coming off the walls.

That is perfect right there.

Awesome.

By the time we take it out, it's gonna look like cotton candy.

It's a little bit higher of hydration than you would traditionally get with pita.

It's usually about 55 to 60.

We go up to 73 just because I like that crumb a little bit more open, and I like the moisture, like, kinda, like, tackiness within the crumb.

All right, so we're back.

We're at hour four.

We're mixing once every hour.

See how it's shiny?

- Yeah.

- [James] That's strong dough now.

That's it.

Boom.

Done.

- Doesn't need more than that.

- Nope, that's all.

Yeah, there's no fat in here whatsoever, but it is shiny already.

(gentle music) When I was younger, my parents owned businesses, so I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, who was Armenian and raised in Egypt.

And then got married to, like, my grandfather, who was Sicilian.

So I spent a lot of time in her kitchen.

It was like, you know, you're with Grandma, you know, Grandma was cooking because she cooked all day long.

So I see my scores here.

So I'm just following them and cutting down.

You see that it already has some structure, there's already some air?

- Yeah.

- [James] When you work with dough, you have to be really confident.

It pretty much smells fear.

- [Liza] Smells fear?

- [James] Dough smells fear.

We were rolling grape leaves together all the time.

You know, we stunk as kids 'cause we were, like, putting them in our pockets and stuff like that.

So we were definitely the stinky kids in the neighborhood.

Yeah, Armenian food, for people that don't know it, it's really similar to, say, Greek or Turkish.

Its spice palate is really prevalent.

Naturally it makes sense to mix the two cultures just because it's just the style I've come up with and practiced anyway.

So, like, okay, it's just... I don't consider it a style of cuisine.

It's just, like, my style of cuisine.

But yeah, you could definitely tell it's a mom-and-pop shop.

You know, I'm back of the house, my wife's front of the house.

- We've both been in this business for a long time separately, and it's something that it's more like a dream come true to do it together and really appreciate every day.

We get to spend every day together.

That's why it works for us.

- We do everything proper, but you can tell it's still, like, okay our personalities are here.

We opened June 2019.

(gentle music continues) (customers chattering) Not a lot of people make pita to scratch to order because it's really difficult to do.

That's another whole layer of labor in the kitchen, first off, but I actually take on that labor.

Like, regular pita bread, it just balloons, right?

Ours, you want it kinda like this so it attaches more on the side.

So you actually have, like, more of a chew on the side, and then the inside would be hollow.

It was probably, like, six months R&D just to find the right hydration, right temperature, you know, right size of it, right everything.

The fun part about that was actually coming up with something that you ate, and I was like, "Okay, this is good enough.

Like, this is great.

Like, this is delicious.

Like, okay, this is what we're gonna be doing.

I'm psyched about it.

Like, I can't wait to open this restaurant now."

Bread is my favorite thing to eat.

- Is it really?

- Yeah.

Completely.

I'm like a carbaholic for the most part.

So yeah, we poke it.

All the steam comes out.

So I'm baking a pita, actually cooking other food at the same time and garnishing dishes and running cold kitchen off my station here.

So it kinda like an octopus at times.

Anybody that does something they love, you become kind of a slave to it, but you like it.

Let's turn about there and check the bottom.

Bottom looks beautiful.

Yeah, tables go through a lot of pita.

Average is one pita per person.

So you see what I was saying?

Like, it's attached on the outside.

So it almost goes top to bottom where it's actually still attached.

You know, that's to do with the hydration.

And then you'll have these kind of, these guys sticking out.

It's just air pockets, so it's a delicious.

You know, we've had customers say that this is like the best pita they've had outside of like Israel.

Which is really, that's a huge compliment.

Yeah, we actually do a gyro sandwich, but the bread wraps around the whole thing.

It's not just folded.

You know, we own a restaurant in New York City, and we're doing it, you know?

It's not just, "Hey, we tried and it didn't work."

Actually, it's working, you know (gentle music continues) (upbeat music) (gentle music) - Eating a perfect panettone is like having a splendid dream.

And if you close your eyes, you really have the sensation of being on top of this soft pillow.

And when you eat the slice of panettone with the aroma of the candied fruit, the vanilla, the butter, it's heaven.

- The panettone is like that light.

That light that kept on burning, that kept on burning, that would never go out.

You'd give me panettone that my father made, it was just like, in my mind, it was the best thing ever.

The best thing he ever made, the best thing he ever created.

Like, I just saw him.

I was like, he won all these awards for everything else.

I was like, "Those things don't mean anything, man.

Like, your panettone is, like, unbelievable."

- Hello, my name is Chef Biagio Settepani.

- Hello, my name is Chef Joseph Settepani, and we're from Bruno Bakery.

- We're located in Staten Island, New York.

(upbeat music) So this is the madre.

And we refreshed this last night.

And if you were to, if you could feel this, this is almost like a bomb.

This is how hard it is because it traps all the gases inside here.

So now, slowly, you have to open it.

But you see, you still explodes.

See?

- [Liza] Whoa.

Wow.

- [Biagio] But this is what it looks like.

(exciting music) Okay.

What we do in the morning, we give the mother yeast a bath.

Kind of purify it.

So I'm gonna scale one kilo of this.

(exciting music continues) - [Joseph] So Bruno█s Bakery is a family-run business here in New York.

It's really an amazing story of family coming from Italy to New York and living that American dream.

And 40 years after, you know, we're still here.

- [Chef Biagio] That's my flour.

- We make very traditional Italian pastries, Sicilian pastries, but the one obsession that I have, that my customers have, that my staffs have is the panettone.

So feeding the baby is the first stage.

- I don't sleep in the morning.

When I gotta do panettone, I don't sleep.

It's something that people know us for.

So I think, you know, we must be doing something pretty decent, you know?

(exciting music continues) (machine whirring) Okay, so this is okay with this.

Now we're gonna let it rest.

- Now you're good.

- Amen.

- All right, ready?

So we call it the baby.

Everybody calls this lievito madre, which is mother starter, sour starter.

This is a dry sour starter.

We've fed it three times throughout the day, four-hour intervals, and now it grew in triple in volume.

And now this is the last feeding, and we're ready to mix our own l█impasto So in essence, what is panettone?

Panettone, it's basically a sourdough.

To develop the bread, the final product, we need, you know, ingredients.

So our baby is actually over 100 years old.

But when he went to Italy, the chef he learned from gifted him a small piece of his madre.

That's why it's really special to us.

Give it a little kiss.

- I don't know.

Some chefs have the fixation on, I don't know, on creme brulee or baguette or whatever.

My fixation was the panettone.

I mean, this is 36 hours of production to have a platter like this.

- This is the ultimate, ultimate goal as a baker.

So understand how to bake a panettone.

This is our madre.

We're gonna put her right in.

This is regular white flour.

Our flour is imported from Italy So it's a special flour just made for panettones.

When I was a kid, he would never be home when he makes panettone.

When it was Christmas season, he'd just be a ghost.

Now, if you take a look at the dough, what a difference.

- Oh, yeah.

- Came together, has nice structure.

It's still, like, tough, right?

All right, so look at this beautiful, this beautiful dough.

You know, I'm feeding him nice stuff.

It's loving it.

You know, my father's been working on this his whole life.

And I now am trying to push it forward.

There was going to be a movement for panettone, and I wanted to be able to be kind of on the forefront of that as a younger generation.

You don't wanna just stand here and watch the dough, you know, because then you might fall in.

I mean, I don't know what else to say.

It's beautiful, shiny, it's smooth.

It has some bubbles already.

- My concern is that now that everybody wants to do panettone, everybody, you know, and it's a human thing, but I wanna keep the traditional alive, you know?

And this would be the traditiona Milano-style panettone.

And there is a set rule of ingredients that have to go in that, in a panettone, okay?

- So it's been nine hours, and our madre is ready.

This is a mother yeast that's fully alive.

You know, I remember as a kid, I would walk into the shop when my dad was baking panettone.

It would just smell delicious.

It's like one of those cartoons that, like, your body is like a soul, and it's just, like, kinda getting carried away.

It's unbelievable.

- So if you have seven kind of panettone, we sell 10 times the volume of this than the other ones.

- This panettone represents my father in the best possible way I could tell you.

And we're almost there.

We're almost to eating beautiful panettone.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) It's important, you know, in our family because when he started making it, there was no one in New York making it.

Everybody was just buying it from the supermarket.

We soak our raisins in champagne.

A lot of people tell us our panettone is, like, very much like cotton candy when they eat it.

Just add a little bit more butter to it.

I mean, what's wrong with more butter?

(upbeat music continues) - [Interviewer] How did it bring you guys closer?

- Closer?

- Yeah.

- With my foot.

- Yeah.

And my butt.

(Biagio and Joseph laughing) Nah.

We make on average every year about 3,000 panettones.

We probably eat about 40.

- [Fina] Joseph is the next step of the Settepani family in bringing panettone awareness, especially here in the States.

- So at this point, we put them in the mold.

Now these get to join their brothers and sisters in the proof box and relax and get tripled up in volume.

(upbeat music) - [Chef Biagio] This is insanely good, that crust.

- Oh, look at these.

They grew really nice.

I like to put everything on the table.

So we're gonna bake these at about 340 degrees Fahrenheit.

So then we have some sugar grains.

And then we get some powdered sugar.

And why not?

We have a lot of sugar, we have a lot of butter.

You know, let's just enjoy this.

- [Chef Biagio] The chef life, it's, you know, three weeks, four weeks, a month, you know?

It actually improves with time.

- When I cut open a slice, I cut it and split it.

And it's like that ha-ha moment of like when you open that, like, cartoon treasure chest, right?

You open it, and you look at it, and it's like (imitates horn).

And my heart beats every time I open it because that dictates, like, if I did a good job or not.

Look at these bad boys.

Smells amazing.

They look great.

But at this point, you still need to handle this with care.

- It's really the pride and joy of what we do in Bruno Bakery.

And again, like I said, we've been working on this for over 40 years, and it's amazing that every year you get to improve it.

You're always trying to do something much better for your customers.

- I didn't do a bad job.

- Good job, Chef.

- Thanks, Chef.

- As the world reopens and the city recovers, people are putting away their starters and venturing out into the boroughs in search of the perfect sourdough.

I hope you join along.

After all, there are certain breads so well-crafted, they're best left to the experts.

That's it for this episode of "food.

curated."

I'm Liza de Guia.

Be sure to connect with us on social media and eat more stories.

I'll see you at the bakeries.

(upbeat music) Funding for food.

curated.

is made possible by.

Stele is a globally curated collection of artisanal and independent perfumes.

Hand-picked olfactory experiences that tell a story.

Available online and at two New York locations.

For more info, we're at Stele (dot) nyc.

Support for food.

curated.

comes from CMD Psych.

Bringing a holistic approach to child wellness and women's mental health care.

Helping patients find balance and harmony in their lives.

For more info, head to CMD Psych (dot) com Additional Funding provided by.

Craving more about the stories behind the craft.

Dive deeper into the makers we care about.

On our social pages, and at foodcurated dot com.

[music] [music] [music]