Artisan Foods Memo: Meet the Breadmakers' Guru; Michel Suas and the Quality Artisan Bread Movement in America

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Editor's Note: After decades of which the definition of "good bread" in the United States meant puffy white sandwich slices and doughy french-style loaves (with a few geographical exceptions), today one can buy top-quality artisan-produced breads in America that rival those produced anywhere in the world. Yes, even France.

Many of the country's supermarkets (even the big chains), natural foods stores and specialty shops sell top-quality breads in their stores, as well as baking top-flight breads of numerous varieties right in the stores using wood burning hearth ovens.

In fact, breads such as San Francisco-made ACME brand, along with numerous others, are today considered among the finest examples of artisan-produced breads in the world.

And it's not just on the left and right coasts in the U.S. where top-quality artisan breads are available. You can find them at supermarkets, natural foods stores, specialty markets and bakery's throughout the country -- from the Midwest and South to the Canadian border states.

Michel Suas (pictured at the top), who's called the breadmakers' guru, is arguably the man most responsible for helping to create a quality artisan bread culture -- and industry -- in the U.S.

In the article below, San Francisco Chronicle food writer Amanda Gold profiles the breadmakers' guru, who makes his home in the San Francisco Bay Area (as well as operates his bread baking school there) but travels throughout the U.S. and the world spreading his quality bread gospel.

Guest Memo:
The breadmakers' guru
Amanda Gold, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

When Tartine owner Chad Robertson opened his first bakery in Point Reyes Station more than a decade ago, he couldn't figure out how to get any sleep.

Baking bread 18 hours a day was proving untenable, and he needed help - stat.

He could have thrown in the towel; he might have looked for an extra hand or two.

Instead, he called Michel Suas.

Known within the industry as the guru of artisan bread, Suas has made a career out of responding to similar quandaries. The native Frenchman has worked with all the big names in the bread world. From local outfits like Acme, Grace Baking and Semifreddi's to La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles and Balthazar in New York, Suas has done everything from developing formulas for the perfect loaf to streamlining baking processes to designing bakeries worldwide.

In a little more than a decade, he's founded the San Francisco Baking Institute and equipment importing company TMB Baking, opened Thorough Bread (a retail bakery) and authored an impressive textbook on baking and pastry.

Suas is living proof that when it comes to dough, he's the go-to guy.

"He's the best in the business," says Robertson matter-of-factly. "You can ask him anything and he knows exactly what to do."

For Robertson's sleeping dilemma, that meant helping him figure out a way to slow down the bread rising so it could happen overnight. That way, he could catch some Z's while the dough worked its magic.

"I knew what needed to happen," says Robertson, "but I was 22 and I'd never done it before. Michel worked with me to figure it out."

Suas' expertise draws from a 40-plus year career that began in Brittany, France, when he was just 14.

At that time, kids would either stay on the same track in school, he explains, or, "If you were goofing off, they'd say, 'OK, we've had enough of you,' and they'd make you get a job."

Given his gentle, reserved nature today, it seems almost unfathomable that Suas would have fallen into the latter category, but he did, so he began an apprentice program in the kitchen.

The apprentice

"I started on my 14th birthday," he recalls with a grin, "and they made me peel potatoes and clean mussels all day, with my tender little hands."

It was a rough start, but he lasted in the program for the three required years, before moving his focus to pastry. Suas spent one year in training, received his diploma and moved around to build up his resume. With each new experience, his passion became clearer. It wasn't simply that he was drawn to the bread and sweets - that much was true. But a great deal of his influence also had to do with lifestyle choices and personalities.

Suas began working with a pastry chef named Hingouët - they only knew last names at the time, he says - who was educated both in and outside of the kitchen. "When the other chefs were all about chasing girls and fast cars, he talked about love, music and the arts. He had family values."

After that, he says, "I never stopped pastry."

Sitting across the table from the wiry, now 54-year-old man at the South San Francisco offices of the baking institute, it's hard to imagine that he would have chosen any other path. He gently brushes a lock of floppy gray hair from his forehead, and talks about his wife, Evelyne, who has been with him every step as his business has grown and is a co-owner of the San Francisco Baking Institute and TMB Baking. Their 12-year-old daughter, Julie Marie, conceived the name Thorough Bread for his retail bakery and designed the logo. Keeping his family close and involved is clearly a priority.

But focusing on life outside the bakery wasn't the only positive influence that Hingouët had on Suas. Under his tutelage, the 21-year-old Suas landed a job as head pastry chef at Barrier restaurant in Tours, France. The fact that it had earned three Michelin stars was just the cherry on top - the real draw was that at the time, it was the only three-star restaurant baking its own bread on site. But after three years of adding to his bread-baking repertoire, he was ready to move on.

"I was curious and I had nothing to lose," he says, "so I took my backpack and came to the United States. I didn't speak a word of English." Landing first in New York on his way to Chicago, it didn't take Suas long to find a job - word spread that there was a guy from France in town, and he was a good baker and pastry chef.

After a stint in the Windy City and a trip back to France to take care of his ailing mother, Suas and his then-girlfriend, Evelyne, returned to the United States for good.

Cross-country odyssey

The two piled into a VW van and drove all over North America, from Key West and Texas up to Canada, sightseeing and eating on a budget.

"We got lucky," he says. "We ran out of money in San Francisco."

Suas landed here in 1987, when the Bay Area was smack in the middle of an artisan bread revolution.

One afternoon, he popped into the office of Earl Lind, who, at the time, was the go-to equipment guy for bakers. Sitting across the desk from Lind was Steve Sullivan, who had opened a little bakery in Berkeley called Acme, and was looking to expand.

That began a 20-year acquaintance that would ultimately benefit them both.

"I had gone to a couple of these trade shows in Europe," says Sullivan, "and had seen a certain kind of mixer - all of the old bakeries there had it." Sullivan says that even though he didn't know much about it, he had already decided that his bakery should have this mixer. But he didn't know how to get it.

"I couldn't believe it when Michel walked in. He knew exactly what I was talking about."

Sullivan became Suas' first client, and the word spread from there.

Suas primarily helped Sullivan with equipment and planning, but Sullivan's word-of-mouth recommendations were priceless.

Nancy Silverton at Los Angeles' La Brea Bakery was Suas' second client, and others followed.

In the late '80s and early '90s, says Suas, "everything was being shaken up, and I was in the middle of that chaos. I was here at a time when people were looking for support and direction, and all I did was give my honest advice."

That advice went to bakers at Metropolis, Grace Baking, Boudin, Ecce Panis in New York, and Essential Baking Co. and Grand Central Bakery in Seattle, plus chefs like Thomas Keller - before opening Bouchon Bakery - to name a few.

"Almost anybody who has set up a bakery in the last 15 years in the United States has probably dealt with Michel," says Sullivan.

But for Suas, it was an education as well.

Intro to sourdough

"I was so amazed with what was going on here," he says of the artisan movement. "It was a thrill to be surrounded by so many people with that much talent." In fact, Suas explains, he never wanted to be that guy who came from France and said, "Here's how to make a baguette."

"When I came, sourdough was a discovery," he says. "At first I thought, 'Wow, that's a strange flavor,' but when you learn how it's done, you start to appreciate it."

In addition, the way bread was processed and handled was different. Liquid starters were not something that had been used in Europe. And bread with cheese or olives? That was completely new.

"I don't take credit for what was being developed," says Suas. "I just helped stabilize those formulas." The truth is, he says, as long as you have the basics, you can adapt and work with anything.

His helpful, honest advice and passion for the bread movement led enough people to his door, but what he really wanted was to start a baking school. In 1996, that's exactly what he did, opening the San Francisco Baking Institute.

"I was traveling a lot at the time, and one thing I realized was that a lot of young people were being left out. Small bakeries couldn't afford a consultant, and I couldn't be everywhere at once."

At the school, students come either for five-day seminars, or the 18-week professional training program (see sidebar, this page), and include everyone from serious bakers who have never had proper training to those who want to open their own bakery. Some even come as a gift to themselves on a vacation from another line of work - baking enthusiasts who consider it a hobby.

Suas is quick to assure that artisan bread can and should be baked in the home oven, and to that end, he has instructors give tips on how to do so.

To those heading into the professional arena, both Suas and the baking institute remain a resource long after students leave the school.

Though he doesn't have a hands-on role with the students, Suas keeps plenty busy. These days, he starts every morning with a trip to Thorough Bread, his retail spot on Church Street in San Francisco. He personally brings in the baked goods from the school, admitting that it forces him to keep an eye on things.

Bakers' resource

In addition, he has spent the last four years assembling a new textbook ("Advanced Bread and Pastry: A Professional Approach," Delmar Cengage Learning, 2008) that gives functional and technical advice on all aspects of baking and pastry. The book weighs more than a 5-pound bag of flour, but is surprisingly approachable. He hopes that it will become the standard instructional book.

It's fitting. At the end of the day, Suas is, first and foremost, a teacher. If he can help someone streamline the process to go from 50 to 5,000 baguettes a day, if he can equip a bakery to run efficiently or - perhaps most importantly - help a fledgling baker figure out how to get some sleep, he knows he's succeeded.

Note: Click here for some artisan bread recipes and other resources from the breadmakers' guru Michel Suas. [Photo credit: Craig Lee: San Francisco Chronicle.]

Artisinal Foods Memo: The 'Crack Heard Round the World'; Whole Foods Sets World's Record For Cracking Most Parmigiano Cheese Wheels Simultaneously

Two Whole Foods Market cheesemongers crack the giant, 85-pound wheel of cheese at a store in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada on April 12.

Another food-based world record has been broken.

Last month, Whole Foods Market, Inc. set a world record by simultaneously cracking open 300 85-pound wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese in 270 of its stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

With all the data in--300, 85-pound wheels of the Italian artisanal cheese cracked all at the same time in at least 176 stores (that's the number of stores verified at press time) in three nations--the Guinness Book of World Records folks are recording Whole Foods Market and its global team of cheesemongers as the world record holders in the category.

The cheese--although it was a full 24-month aged Italian Parmigiano Reggiano--didn't stand alone in this world-record breaking effort though. Rather, it took hundreds of well-trained Whole Foods Market professional cheesemongers to achieve the task of cracking open the 85-pound artisanal cheese wheels.

This is no easy task. There's a century's-old art to cracking open the cheese wheels, which among other special techniques requires the cheesemonger to use five separate special knives to achieve the goal.

The Whole Foods' team members used this traditional method of "cracking the cheese," to achieve the world's record. It also made an exciting in-store demonstration for those customers who watched the event live in the stores.

And the skilled cheesemongers at all 270 stores in the U.S., Canada and the UK didn't disappoint.

Thousands of Whole Foods' customers showed up on April 12 at 3pm to watch the Whole Foods' cheese specialists attempt to break the world's record for simultaneously cracking open the most wheels of cheese, cheering them on at times, very quite at other times during the process, which traditionally can take an entire half-hour to complete.

Stopwatches were set, synchronization worthy of a military invasion was put into place, and given the 3pm signal, the hundreds of Whole Foods Market cheesemongers all cracked the cheese at the exact same time. General Patton would have been proud of how they pulled the task off.

Keep in mind the "Cheesemonger General" of this event had to balance different time zones--the U.S. stores ranged from the west coast, to the Midwest, to the eastern U.S. for example, not to mention the time difference in the UK--coordinate hundreds of cheesemongers armed with five different types of knives, as well as contend with an excited audience who were all looking forward to a taste of the 24-month aged Italian cheese once the wheels were cracked.

The event went perfectly, according to Cathy Strange, Whole Foods' global cheese buyer and one of the retailer's "big cheeses" behind the world record breaking event. In fact, Ms. Strange was glowing over the success of the global cheese cracking and the fact it will go down in the annals of food-based history.

Commenting on the April 12 cheese cracking, she said: "It was a sight to behold as our cheesemongers 'broke open happiness' and shared this crown jewel of cheeses with our guests. We are thrilled Whole Foods Market has made its mark in the Guinness Book of World Records."

Without fear of sounding "cheesy" we congratulate the Whole Foods cheesemongers for their achievement. The timing, precision and skills required to pull off such a feat is truly impressive.

We also give props to Whole Foods "big cheeses" for coming up with the idea and promotion.

Here at Natural~Specialty Foods Memo, we often argue the best marketing is that which combines fun, excitement, team work and curiosity, along with a message. In this case, the marketing message is that Whole Foods is the "big cheese" when it comes to retail cheese marketing, and that it's not afraid to break a few cheese wheels (like 85 of them weighing 300-pounds each) to prove it.

And, of course, since Parmigiano Reggiano is considered the "king of cheese," a nice choice in selecting the variety for the event and as part of its marketing message.

You can learn more about the event, along with the merchandising of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese at Whole Foods Market, here. There are even a few recipes that will bring tears to every cheese lovers eyes and pleasure to their hearts. You also can view a gallery of pictures of various Whole Foods stores taken during the April 12 world record-breaking cheese wheel cracking event.

Artisanal Foods Memo: Hail to the Cheese: America is Experiencing a Revolution in Artisanal and Farmstead Cheese Production, Sales and Consumption

The cheese department in the new, recently-opened Whole Foods Market in Napa, California (above) features at least a couple thousand varieties of artisanal cheeses produced in America and abroad.

As little as five or six year's ago, if you went to the cheese case in an American supermarket--including in many upscale stores--you would most likely find dozens of facings of processed Cheddar, Swiss, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, Munster and a few other varieties of cheese, in various configurations, flavors and sizes. But you would find only a handful of varieties of non-processed, high-quality specialty or artisanal cheeses in that same store's cheese case. And, of those varieties of premium specialty cheese in the store, nearly all of them would be imported from France, Italy or elsewhere in Europe.

Artisanal and gourmet cheese was such a foreign concept in many U.S. cities not all that long ago for example, that the late Pulitzer Prize winning, long-time newspaper columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Herb Caen, had a joke he would use in the column at least three times a year. Caen's cheese joke: "If you go to the gourmet cheese case at the Safeway in Chico, California you will find Kraft Velveeta."

We love Chico (we've even visited). Its a college town and is fairly hip yet mainstream at the same time. But Caen, who was born and raised in nearby Sacramento, but adopted the big city of San Francisco as his hometown. And, as even adopted natives of the City by the Bay are apt to do when it comes to food, they can't help putting down the hinterland's food choices.

But, you get our point. Times have changed dramatically when it comes to good cheese in America.

Today, that's all changed in the U.S. The artisanal cheese category is big in America--and growing in popularity with consumers. Artisanal and gourmet cheeses also are being produced by hundreds of small cheese makers throughout the country, and even by a number of major cheese manufacturing and marketing companies.

No longer do American retailers and consumers have to look to Europe to stock and consume excellent cheeses. In fact, like what has happened in the premium wine category, many Europeans are enjoying American-produced artisanal cheeses at home, having tried them while visiting the U.S., experiencing a taste bud explosion which made them think they were eating gourmet cheeses from their home countries.

U.S.-produced artisanal cheeses aren't being exported to Europe and other countries in any where near the volume say California premium wine is being shipped and sold. However, it's starting. Meanwhile, the market is growing for the domestically-produced high-end cheeses so much, that's exporting isn't even a major concern to the specialty cheese producers at this point in time.

U.S. food retailers stocking more artisanal cheese varieties

Food retailers of all formats--from mainstream supermarkets, to natural foods stores and upscale grocers, to deli's and even convenience stores, are selling American-produced varieties of high-end gourmet and artisanal cheeses most wouldn't have considered merchandising just 10 years ago.

These food retailer's have discovered their shoppers want high-quality artisanal cheeses (both American-made and imported) and are willing to pay a premium for them. In fact, artisanal cheese is one of the fastest-growing categories in the approximately $59 billion a year specialty foods industry. Research firm Packaged Facts predicts the overall cheese category will see double-digit growth in the next five years, with the majority of the percentage of that growth coming from the specialty cheeses.

Up until the last few years, a consumer had to shop at a Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market or a regional or local upscale food retailer or fine cheese shop to be able to choose from a decent selection of artisanal and gourmet cheeses. No longer is that true.

Kroger becoming a 'big (high-quality) cheese'

For example mainstream grocery chain Kroger Co. is getting into the gourmet and artisanal cheese category in a major way. Kroger, the number one supermarket chain in terms of annual sales volume in the U.S., has inked a deal with Murray's Cheese, New York's famous purveyor of quality imported and domestic specialty cheeses, to lend its brand name and category expertise to the grocer. Beginning later this year, mini-versions of Murray's popular New York gourmet cheese shops will begin opening in a select number of Kroger stores.

Safeway and SuperValu taking a bite out of the artisanal cheese market

Other national supermarket chains like Safeway Stores, Inc. and SuperValu, Inc. also are jumping on the gourmet and artisanal cheese category bandwagon. Safeway, the third-biggest U.S. grocery chain, has opened good-sized gourmet and artisanal cheese sections in its Lifestyle format stores, and even is offering a number of the specialty cheese varieties under its own upscale Safeway Signature label, which is a store brand it uses for higher-end perishable foods' items.

SuperValu, the number two supermarket chain in the U.S., is expanding its gourmet and artisanal cheese sections in many of its stores as part of its new "fresh and premium" foods format, which the grocer is using to convert hundreds of stores into a supermarkets similar to Safeway's upscale lifestyle store.

Additionally, SuperValu acquired the Southern California-based Bristol Farms gourmet supermarket chain as part of its purchase of Albertson's, Inc. a couple years ago. Bristol Farms' is one of the pioneers in merchandising specialty cheeses in the U.S., creating large gourmet cheese departments in its very upscale supermarkets and often being the first food retailer to introduce a new brand in its Southern California stores. SuperValu is tapping into this corporate division's category expertise to upgrade its artisanal cheese offerings in most all of its premium format and mid-range format supermarkets, under the new "fresh and premium" format.

Artisanal cheese is becoming so popular in the U.S., that upscale grocers like Whole Foods Market, Wegman's, Bristol Farms and others are putting cheese aging caves in some of their new stores. In it's "new generation" lifestyle-oriented stores, Whole Foods has upscale cheese departments that are as much as 2,000 square feet in size, including the aging caves. These grocers and others also are regularly running wine and cheese pairing and tasting classes in-store, bringing in specialty cheese producers for special events, and promoting the category like its never been promoted at retail before in the U.S.

France takes notice

So many new and high-quality artisanal cheese producers have come on the scene in the U.S. in just the last five or so years--and so many retailers are selling and promoting U.S-produced specialty cheeses--that powerhouse gourmet cheese producing and marketing country France has taken notice of the surge in domestic production and sales in America, long its largest market for cheese exports.

Last summer, France formed the Cheeses of France Marketing Council, and has launched a marketing and PR campaign in the U.S. as a way to remind American consumers of the quality and characteristics of French cheese.

France and other European countries like Italy don't have much to worry about though. The boom in domestically-produced artisanal cheeses in the U.S. is lifting all boats, including France's, Italy's and Denmark's. Sales of imported gourmet and specialty cheese is up by double digits as well.

The 'less but premium' consumer trend

This boom in high-quality artisanal cheese isn't a surprise to us. It mirrors what has been happening in all the other food and grocery categories in the U.S. for the last decade, which is what we call the "less but premium" trend or flight towards premium quality foods and beverages. Middle class, upper middle-class and affluent consumers have been trading-up in many categories, buying more expensive premium-quality foods but in smaller quantities.

Just a few of the category examples of this phenomenon include: ice cream. Consumers in droves are buying pints of super-premium ice cream like Haagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry's instead of half-gallon containers of premium ice cream, even though the half-gallon of premium ice cream is still good quality and costs about the same price as the pint of super premium. Further, dozens of smaller, regional super-premium ice cream (and frozen yogurt) makers are thriving, including those using soy, rice and goat milk in addition to cow milk.

The coffee category is one of the most demonstrative examples of this consumer phenomenon. Consumers of all income-levels are buying better, higher-quality, more expensive coffee at retail food stores than ever before. This is so pervasive that mainstream coffee brands like Folgers and Maxwell House have not only introduced their own versions of premium coffee, they've even reformulated their mainstream lines, so they contain finer-quality coffee beans.

And, of course, the "Starbucks phenomenon," in which consumers with even limited incomes are willing to pay $4 -to- $5 for a premium hot or cold coffee drink, shows how this trading-up premium trend is not limited to the affluent only.

The confections category also is one where consumers are buying premium, more expensive treats like chocolate bars for example, in smaller quantities. Less is more if its premium chocalate is the rend. Premium and gourmet (along with organic, nutrient-enhanced and Fair Trade) are the fastest growing segments of the confections category. Dark, premium chocolate, which just a few years ago was a tiny upscale niche in the category, is becoming mainstream. It's the fastest-growing segment in the category.

More growth to come in the artisanal cheese category

We see continued double-digit growth in the artisanal cheese category. We also see more start-up companies creating their own cheeses and brands, including dairy farmers who want to add value to their operations and create a bradned product instead of exclusively selling their milk to a milk processing firm.

One dairy farmer who did this just a few years ago is John Fiscalini, who operates a dairy farm in Modesto, California that's been in the family since 1914. A few years ago Ficalini created Fiscalini Cheese Company, a one-man operation, on his dairy farm. Today, just a few years later, not only is the dairy farmer turned master cheese maker's farmstead-produced cheese considered some of the best in the U.S., it's won prizes internationally in cheese competitions as well as at home.

Fiscalini's timing was good in that it coincided with the growing interest in artisanal and gourmet cheeses by U.S. consumers, along with the trend among food retailers to expand their selections of the high-quality specialty cheeses in their stores.

Look for more dairy farmer/entrepreneurs, along with chefs and others, to get into the artisanal cheese business, creating new brands and even new varieties as they model the U.S premium wine industry in creating new cheese varieties that are distinctly American, as well as others inspired by European traditions and styles.

About 25 years ago, a small group of artisanal cheese producers in the U.S. formed the American Cheese Society, an organization that promotes artisanal and farmstead cheese production and sales, and offers educational information about the category. There were so few artisanal cheese producers in the country at the time in fact, they could all fit into a very small room.

That's changed dramatically today, and the field continues to boom. For example, when the cheese society held its annual "best cheese" awards--its sort of an Oscar for best cheese in a given variety--there were only 300 different cheeses entered in the competition. Last year however, over 1,200 cheeses vied for the much desired "best cheeses" award at the group's annual awards ceremony.

Like the specialty, premium, natural, organic and Fair Trade product categories--which we write about regularly--the artisanal cheese category will continue to grow rapidly. And it has good company with all these other premium, natural and healthy categories--coffee, new-age beverages, ice cream, fresh produce, meats and so many more--that we can safely say, when it comes to growth in the natural, specialty and artisanal foods' categories, the "cheese does not stand alone."