STARRED BIO CHEF PAOLO SARI TALKS ON TRADITIONAL FOODS & BREADS

by Paolo Sari the only Michelin Starred&Certified Bio Chef in the world MONACO. Traditional diets are a delicious roadmap to healthy eating. Let the old ways be your guide to good health and well-being! Nutrition, culture and sustainability are my missions of preserving and promoting traditional foods in ways that are good for people and good for the planet. Today we live in a society fearful of allergies, illness, contagion, germs, gluten, fat, sugar … Rather than relying on highly processed foods that are stripped of their nutrients, flavor, and even calories, traditional diets celebrate the abundance of earth’s offerings, highlighting seasonal and regional produce, hearty recipes, and the pleasures of the table.

While many modern advances have saved time and lives, the distance from the traditional kitchen has come at a cost. Carelessly eating an industrial hamburger, a foie gras from force-fed ducks in a practice known as gavage, a polyphosphate ham from an industrially slaughtered pig, a steak from an animal fed on silage and living in a narrow stable-box, a cheese or a butter made of pasteurized milk: these are just some of the “improves” of our modern diet.

That is far from the conviction of Greek physician Hippocrates, known as “The Father of Modern Medicine”, which stated in the V century BC “Our diet is our first medicine“. Our ancestors have a lot to teach us about not letting fresh food go to waste, and how to eat seasonally. Traditional diets – the “old ways” of eating – are not associated with dieting today. Traditional diets are a delicious and pleasant way of enjoying healthy food for the rest of our lives without succumbing to deprivation or guilt. Promoting sustainable food production in traditional food ways Paolo Sari helps small farmers worldwide maintain their way of life. By drawing attention to the benefits of local and regional foods Sari wants to balance out the supply of increasingly packaged and processed foods, keeping consumers thinking “outside of the box.” In fact, today, people are more disconnected with how food is grown and cooked than ever before. Traditional recipes are a staple of nutritious diets, and should be a staple in our diets as well.

To deepen this article posted by Montecarlotimes.eu, Sari has interviewed Jean Kircher, owner of the Kircher mill and founder of Pains & Tradition, situated in the Ardennes region, France. With more than 200 years of history, the Kircher mill offers quality and environmentally friendly products. It guarantees short production chains and complete traceability of products from the field to the shelf to help people fall in love with healthy food.

Q. Jean, how much the bread making process has changed in the last 20 years?

A. Unfortunately, bread making has undergone to the Laws of Productivity. Timesaving and automation brought significant changes during recent years. The ancient rules of kneading, hydration and fermentation have been distorted to make breads that are no longer preserved and have no taste!

Q. Have you partly aligned yourself with this market?

A. Absolutely not! For more than 35 years, I have been an ardent advocate of the bakery’s old rules. I have created Pains & Traditions to precisely show that it is possible to make traditionale bread in our modern world. It took time and a good deal of obstinacy to maintain this option. At Pains & Tradition we work hard to produce “live” bread that’s to say totally natural without substitutes, without emulsifiers or taste enhancers. We do not use any GMO’s or any other processing aids or technological auxiliaries for that matter.

Q.Today what should the commitment of a miller be?

A. Especially he must guarantee the traceability and be responsible for an ecologically better world. We use nothing else than traditional and simple ingredients: the different types of flour, water, sourdough, salt, yeast and good and natural ingredients. We prefer the natural fermentation at room temperature controlled by the human hand in contrast of a by technology dictated production process. We seek harmony and balance of the finished product. Industrial automation and large scale production is out of question. Bread is a bad product when it is falsely fermented and badly implemented by a poor baker. At Pains & Tradition we lag 50 years behind and we do want to keep this up. By this means our breads are made with great care, time and expertise. As in the past! Our organic ingredients come mainly from Alsatian and Lorraine farms and in any case from Europe. The batches are unbleached; they are not processed nor homogenized. We practice a flour milling operation in the so-called “Hungarian way”, respectful of the product to be grinded. The dough must rest or a short time before final shaping.  Bench rest is typically 15-20 minutes long and during that time, the gluten network, which has been made more elastic through handling, will relax and become more extensible.