Bread Is Magic. Why are we so afraid of it?

Plus, the special nature of bakeries and Monday restaurants

Sweetgreen, the salad chain, started in Washington DC in 2007. By 2011, it had expanded to Philadelphia, with a location on Penn’s campus. 2011 is also the year I started college. Sweetgreen was the favorite spot of many students with unhealthy eating habits, including myself. Standing in the Sweetgreen line in the evening meant hearing a refrain, “no bread”, “no bread” “would you like bread with that?” “no.” You get the picture.

It’s been a long road but I am no longer that girl (I haven’t had Sweetgreen in years and honestly their bread is always dry) but I think I’m not alone in having many feelings about bread, a heavily demonized food in diet culture, especially in the United States (walk down the supermarket aisle and see how many low carb bread options there are). I recognize that I benefit from thin privilege in writing about this and publicly consuming bread. I’m also not referring to people who have to monitor their carbohydrate or gluten intake for medical reasons.

It’s upsetting that bread is something we’re taught to fear when it’s not only delicious, but a connection to our history and culture. I grew up making challah and the process always teaches me something. It’s a tie to tradition (pretty much every culture has some sort of bread) and it’s valuable source of energy and joy. Making bread, especially with yeast (I’ve never dabbled in sourdough but I imagine it’s even more intense) requires you to pay attention. You have to watch and feel the dough, adjusting for things like temperature, humidity, and altitude. That means that the challah I made in New Orleans in the spring rose way faster than one made in December in New York. But most of the time, it all works out.

Bread recipes are some of my favorite to read, even if I don’t make them too often (it’s a project and I’m lucky to live in an area with good options) because the good ones are so detailed. King Arthur Baking recipes offer many cues about how to know when you’re ready for the next step, like “Cover them with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaves to rise until they're slightly puffy ("marshmallow-y" is the term we use in our baking school),” The mere passage of time is not an adequate indicator when you’re talking about something as alive as bread. The surge in bread baking during the pandemic makes a lot of sense, we want an escape from doomscrolling and a sense of security (homemade bread will stave off hunger and a wee bit of existential dread).

My mom absolutely nailed this challah