Using his loaf
There’s a whole lot more to bread than sliced white according to one celebrity chef
FOOD is now considered by some to be the new sex and bread is its lingerie. It’s now considered the foreplay to any meal.
One of the foremost rising stars of the bread business in the UK is Paul Hollywood, a 39-year-old Liverpool chap who has a passion for creating, educating and promoting one of the staples of our diet: our daily bread.
His father had bread shops in his home town and it was through working with him that Paul learned to love bread. These days he is a popular presenter on the UK food channel. He also launched his own Hollywood breads then astutely licensed it off to a French company who still enjoy supplying bread to high table restaurants and hotels all over the UK.
Paul also runs a bread school in one of the old barns at his house in Kent. Here people stay for a weekend, learning about making quality breads.
This year he becomes a published author with the excellent 100 Great Breads. Paul makes an annual sojourn to Paphos with his family, having grown to love Cyprus during his time as master baker at the Annabelle Hotel. The island also has good memories from a career point; it was here, during the filming of a cookery piece, that he was asked by the crew if he had ever thought of doing a TV programme on bread.
What, I wondered, did he make of the new wave of different breads now available from Cypriot bakeries? “Well, lets put it this way,” said Paul “most of the bread sold here is not exactly as it should be. For example, the Ciabatta bread is a pale imitation of the real thing; this bread should come with air holes punched into it similar to a good Emmenthal, plus the taste is nothing to compare with the original recipe. That said, here they do make the very best pitas”.
What about additives in bread? “I only create bread using the simplest of ingredients: salt, yeast, olive oil, flour and water: totally additive free, no E numbers and no emulsified fats. It’s clean and pure and I also do a range of gluten free bread.”
If I wanted to make bread what, I ask Paul, would be the best flour to use? “Always look for a flour bag that tells you its strong enough to bake bread. Usually it will have three circles on the bag and that’s the sign that its suitable for either your oven or your bread machine.” And Paul’s favourite bread? I make a delicious mushroom and onion focaccia with Mozzarella and dried tomatoes, which I serve with rocket leaves in basil oil and duck and onion pate. Then there’s my Stilton and walnut bread and I also do roast potatoes and spinach encased in a bread dough but my signature dish is pepper and onion bread that’s baked in a flower pot. I also try to promote old recipes like Sally Lun and Aberdeen butter rolls. I also make a pretty mean bread and black pudding and then there’s another special which is a chocolate and sour cherry bread that is simply sensational.”
Whet your appetite? Then you can enter competition on page 77 to win one of two signed copies of 100 Great Breads published by Cassell (£12.99)
What car do you drive?
Jaguar XK8
Describe your perfect weekend
Staying at the Cliveden Hotel with my wife, being pampered, with massages sauna etc.
Assuming you believe in reincarnation, who or what would you come back as?
Henry VIII, without the gout. He had a great fondness for wholemeal bread
What is your greatest fear?
Heights
What is your earliest memory?
Christmas
What did you have for breakfast?
Grilled bacon and white bread crisply toasted with two poached eggs
What was the last item of clothing you bought?
My bag got lost in transit coming here, so I had to buy underpants socks etc and I have now found out that Cypriot men must all enjoy wearing really tight pants
