Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread
Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread book cover

Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread

Hardcover – November 17, 2015

Price
$84.60
Format
Hardcover
Pages
336
Publisher
Regan Arts.
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1941393413
Dimensions
9 x 1.5 x 10.5 inches
Weight
4.09 pounds

Description

"The 21 Best Cookbooks of 2015" –Epicurious "Our 15 Favorite Cookbooks of 2015" –bon appétit One of the best cookbooks of 2015 –New York Times Book Review “The Best Cookbooks of 2015” –Vogue "The Best Cookbooks of 2015" –Eater " Bien Cuit is the most beautiful cookbook I have ever seen." — David Haeselin, Los Angeles Review of Books "Zachary Golper demystifies and adapts bread recipes for home cooks." – T: The New York Times Style Magazine “Lots of people are fond of saying that bread baking is part art, part science; this book is truly at the intersection of both.” – Departures “This is the kind of bread civilizations were founded on.” – Brooklyn Magazine “This is a stunningly beautiful book.” –Claire Saffitz, bon appétit "This is the most serious book written about bread this year.” – Eater “A stunner.” – Tasting Table “The essentials of the magical mystery of the creation of truly excellent bread are revealed so precisely and so poetically that even a novice bread maker like myself can join the party.” –Mario Batali"Might the meticulous instructions, set in easy-to-read white type on black (the book is even designed to stay flat when open!) take me from bread ingénue to virtuoso? I can hope. There are many tempting projects here." –Cree LaFavour, New York Times Book Review "A guide to perfecting bread at home from one of my favorite NYC bakeries." –Christian Quinlan, Food & Wine “Celebrated New York City baker Zachary Golper shares his insider secrets to making delicious, artisanal bread so home bakers can master it without spending a lot of dough (pun intended).” – Food Network.com “Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread is one cookbook to keep on the coffee table. With its gorgeous photos and insightful recipes both simple and refined.” – Harper’s Bazaar "The overall design of the book is stunning, with the classy looks of an art book, but the usability of a treasured kitchen friend." – Village Voice "The book is artfully produced with mouthwatering photos." – Austin Chronicle "The fastidiously rustic aesthetic carries over to his new cookbook, “Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread,” which has an exposed-spine binding, so the stitches show." – New York Times “Bien Cuit is a true homage to the art and science of bread baking and it’s gorgeous to boot” –Lauren Salkeld, Yahoo! Food’s Best Holiday Cookbooks “[T]he moment I opened his baking book, Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread written with Peter Kaminisky, it was obvious that these pages held not just bread recipes but great bread recipes." --Larry Noak, Leite’s Culinaria “A bread bible.” – Fathom “Want in on his secrets to make the best bread of your life? Get this book.” – The Kitchn “Renowned baker Zachary Golper provides his insider secrets for creating artisanal breads that will have even the most novice of chefs churning out loaves that rival the local boulangerie in no time.” – The Nest “Chef Zachary Golper is both artisan and iconoclast, taking the best Old World techniques and infusing them with a radical spirit. Bien Cuit is a perfect addition to the bakers’ canon, and a beacon of the new bread revolution.” –Dan Barber"Zachary Golper is the epitome of the artisanal revival in North American baking, using his craft and patience to produce creative bread with soulful taste and texture." –Daniel Boulud“The design is rare for a cookbook—black pages, no spine—but it works. The whole package makes me excited to get baking.” –Paul Forbes, Epicurious’ 21 Best Cookbooks of 2015 "Bien Cuit (French for “well done”) is a modern, beautiful book with an exposed binding that not only adds a lovely artistic aesthetic to your bookshelf but also allows the book to lie flat when you’re cooking." –Jenny Hartin, Tastebook "Innovative techniques from this beloved Brooklyn bakery rise naturally in an artistically bound book." – Vogue Chef Zachary Golper opened his bakery Bien Cuit in the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn in July 2011. It was named Best New Bakery by the Village Voice and made Best of 2011 lists in both the New York Times and New York magazine. National publications Food & Wine , Saveur , Harpers Bazaar , and USA Today have honored the bakery as one of the Best Bakeries in NYC and Best American Bakeries. Bon Appetit also selected Bien Cuit’s baguette as one of the top ten in America. Peter Kaminsky ’s cookbooks include collaborations with Daniel Boulud, Michel Richard, Francis Mallmann, and Sheila Lukins. His outdoors column has appeared in the New York Times for more than twenty-five years. Kaminsky has contributed frequently to Food & Wine and is the author of Pig Perfect and Culinary Intelligence . He is also one of the creators and executive producers of The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Features & Highlights

  • One of the world's most celebrated bakers shares his insider’s secrets to making his delicious, artisanal bread that will have home bakers creating professional-quality products in no time—and inexpensively.
  • Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread
  • is a work of art and has been specially produced and manufactured with an elegant, sophisticated design. This stunning package features an exposed spine, images from famed food photographer Thomas Schauer, and a beautifully designed interior.
  • Bien Cuit
  • introduces a new approach to a proudly old-fashioned way of baking bread. In the oven of his Brooklyn bakery, Chef Zachary Golper creates loaves that are served in New York’s top restaurants and sought by bread enthusiasts around the country. His secret: long, low-temperature fermentation, which allows the dough to develop deep, complex flavors. A thick mahogany-colored crust is his trademark—what the French call
  • bien cuit
  • , or “well baked.” This signature style is the product of Golper’s years as a journeyman baker, from his introduction to baking on an Oregon farm—where they made bread by candlelight at 1 a.m.—through top kitchens in America and Europe and, finally, into his own bakery in the heart of our country’s modern artisanal food scene.
  • Bien Cuit
  • tells the story of Golper’s ongoing quest to coax maximum flavor out of one of the world’s oldest and simplest recipes. Readers and amateur bakers will reap the rewards of his curiosity and perfectionism in the form of fifty bread recipes that span the baking spectrum from rolls and quick breads to his famous 24-day sourdough starter. This book is an homage to tradition, but also to invention. Golper developed many new recipes for this book, including several “bread quests,” in which he brilliantly revives some of New York City’s most iconic breads (including Jewish rye, Sicilian lard bread, Kaiser rolls, and, of course, bagels). You will also find palate-pleasing and innovative “gastronomic breads” that showcase his chef’s intuition and mastery of ingredients. Golper’s defining technique comes at a time when American home cooks are returning to tradition-tested cooking methods and championing the DIY movement. Golper’s methods are relatively simple and easy to master, with recipes that require no modern equipment to make at home: just a bowl, an oven, and time—the dough does most of the work.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(68)
★★★★
25%
(57)
★★★
15%
(34)
★★
7%
(16)
23%
(52)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Nice addition to my bread baking skills

I received this book in the mail without knowing about the exposed spine or the black pages. I took it as kind of an artistic expression what Zachary Golper is trying to do with the bread: expose the process, and bake it dark. So it's Artie's is not a big problem for me although I think it's kind of hipsterish. i think the black polished/painted edges are cool actually, but I'm against the black recipe pages because I can't easily take notes. My cookbooks are written on all over as I try things and maybe I'll have to buy a white pen to do that here. I have made three pretty complex breads so far, probably the three most complex ones in the book: 30 hour sourdough, 60 hour sourdough and Multi grain. I think the breads have been outstanding in flavor and texture. I'm an experienced baker so it's hard for me to know how a beginner might feel about the way the recipes are written, but I found them thorough and precise. I will eventually wander into the quick bread chapter and make some of the interesting scones and biscuits, but right now I'm super happy with the results.
55 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

A must addition to your eclectic library.

I am a Baking and Pastry student at New England Culinary Institute. My artisan bread instructor recommended this book to me, and I am baking "side projects" from this , as it is not in the primary focus of my class curriculum. What a GREAT book.! I've made the White
Pullman loaf, and the Sunflour Seed Rye, so far. Following his directions closely (his approach is different from what I'm doing at NECI), each loaf has come out perfectly. I personally find that I am drawn to this mindset, and methodology, and I think this sort or style of bread is very popular these days.....rustic,handmade ..with a crust that appears to have endured a re-entry trip through the atmosphere back to earth. If you buy the book, and actually work with it....the binding scheme will show itself as being very practical and useful, as it lays flat on the bench at every page! When I travel, I'm sometimes asked to bake something, so I've loaded the Kindle version on my ipad as well....and I should mention here, that I've had no problems with the binding on that.! All in all a well thought out product and offering, this book. And an exciting journey through something new, for some of us.
40 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

so far, so good!

I just received my book. It was packaged appropriately (just like every book I've ordered from Amazon). Yes, the spine is exposed. I want to bake from this book, I don't care what it looks like on my shelf. Most of the books I bake from have broken spines and are covered in flour. I'm not careless, but I buy books to use them. The recipes look interesting and the images are beautiful.

I am in no way connected to the author or publisher. I buy lots of books on Amazon and rely on reviews. I understand people questioning the spine but to me it's not a problem.

I will update after I bake!
32 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

OK, but not near the top of my list

I have mixed feelings about this book.

I've been a fairly serious home bread baker for a number of years and have more bread books than I'll ever need - but I'm always looking for new ideas.

And Bien Cuit has some of those for me - such as the roll and tuck style of mixing. The photography is great and there are an interesting variety of breads, rolls, etc.

So far, I've tried several formulas, the Pullman and the 60 hour sourdough, with good results.

However, there are a variety of things that are less to my liking.

As has been noted in a number of reviews, the binding is strange. It does lie flat, which I like. One of the corners of my cover has started to slightly delaminate. I do wonder what it will look like in a year. The spine has no markings - if you had several volumes made in this style, you would have to pull them out to find the book you wanted.

The white printing and black background requires a white pen to make notes. Both the binding and the white on black seem like an effort to be different rather than something that would add value to the book.

Too many, I feel, of the recipes require exotic ingredients (parsnips, raw pork belly, chestnut puree, anchovy juice, dried mission figs for example). I don't even know where I would find some of these locally. And I'm one with 9 varieties of flour on hand.

There are no baker's percentages included with the recipes. Since I rarely want to make the exact amount of bread indicated (I like to make at least 2 kilos per batch), I'm slowly building and writing in the baker's percentages as I go.

Since I do tend to make larger batches of dough, those recipes that utilize a Dutch Oven require adaptation. It would have been nice to have alternate explanations for options other than the Dutch Oven.

So, while I wouldn't include Bien Cuit in my top 5 favorite bread books, it does have some interesting aspects. Jeffrey Hamelman’s “Bread” still tops my list.
29 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Definitely the Art and Craft of Bread

this is an excellent bread book, particularly suited for an experienced bread baker. Zachary Golper provides a wealth of information as well as an array of bread recipes I haven't seen before. I have been baking bread for more than 30 years, and I have maintained my sourdough for 20.

All the bread recipes are hand kneaded, And while I love the feel and texture of kneading dough, I can no longer do that. With chronic carpometacarpal joint in both my thumbs, kneading is not an option.

With that in mind, I lowered the temperature of water, and used my Bosch Universal mix on low for about 3 minutes to incorporate all the ingredients. I followed this with 3 Stretch and folds at about 45 minutes intervals.

As pointed out in the recipes, the hydration rates are high. For the 30% sourdough bread, I reduced the hydration from 75% to 68% . Otherwise I followed the recipe precisely.

The resultant loaf was wonderfully flavorful and robust; The crumb, good sized holes; and the crust, beautifully carmelized. The addition of 25 g of buckwheat added a brilliant overtone.

This excellent bread book is a treasure trove for anyone who loves the art and craft bread of baking. Follow or adapt the recipes for bien cuit!
25 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Wow! What a bread cookbook! Art book and genuine recipes rolled into one great book!

Amazing Bread Book in an art book format. I have been baking since the 70's and know bread. I've taught a lot of people to bake bread and think this is just as good for beginners as experienced bakers. This is in my top 3 bread books and it's because of the content, the recipes. The art format is also stunning. I love the black glossy edges of this book. The style of the book is unique and beautiful. The recipes are just as unique and the presentation is beautiful. Buy it for the serious bread recipes. They are new, fresh and show an in depth knowledge of the world of bread. Buy it for the beauty. If you like to actually read cookbooks you'll find this book a pleasure. I also like the way the pages lie flat when opened. It avoids all that hassle when following a recipe, and is highly convenient. It will also help keep your book clean. This is a serious cookbook, even though it's very pretty. The ingredients are for the most part ordinary things. Nothing looks too complex. It's what bread should be. If you're an experienced baker you'll find something in it. If you're a novice but love artisan and old world style breads you'll be able to make them using this guide. I'm thrilled with this book and have purchased two more as gifts.
21 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

I really like this book

I really like this book. It surprised me. Aside from being an excellent book about baking, it is a good read---entertaining stories about the chef's career and development as a baker, and the authors' quest for good bread and good food in NYC. I read it cover to cover, which I have never done with a cookbook.The insights and useful tips clearly come from someone who has acquired his skills through hands on kitchen experience working with some of the nation's best bakers and chefs. The book is also packed with astonishing photography.The publisher's choice of binding (spineless binding?) was not typical, but this isn't the first time I have seen it...same as another (Amazon offered) cookbook, Polpo, written by a Venetian restaurateur in London.
21 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

When I first opened the package, I was alarmed ...

When I first opened the package, I was alarmed at the exposed spine. I ordered this for my partner, a baker, as a Christmas present. However, I figured if anyone would design a book with wood-like covers, perhaps it was intentional. While I didn't give the content the same level of scrutiny an expert would, I found the imagery pleasant and enjoyed the variety of delicious recipes.

Edit- After reading some of the other reviews, I unwrapped the present and examined the book closer. I found that part of the spine and cover were already beginning to come apart! I'm very disappointed; the "zen" style of the book had grown on me. What made this even more disappointing is how wonderful the content in the book is! Perhaps the author should consider a different publisher.
19 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

The worst binding I've ever seen!

I see others are commenting on the binding, and I agree! Absolutely the worst binding I've ever seen. No spine? The threads showing? There is nothing but the paper lining the "pastedown/flyleaf" paper holding the book together. The book will fall apart as soon as the paper tears. Would a paperback have been such a bad idea?

Choices...keep it and tape it up or return it. I'll decide what to do tomorrow.

I am also going to email the publisher directly.
18 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

I am so impressed, as a beginner

I have not actually started leaning to make bread yet, so I'm not sure I should be reviewing here. I have obtained a number of books/authors that are highly spoken of and have especially collected Peter Reinhart's books - I think he's fabulous. I have the Bread Bible; Tartine Bread; Salt, Water, Yeast; and several others - but this book, this book should have been my FIRST book! Sure, it's impressive with it's wooden cover, etc., but it is a great instructional and reading book for the beginner. I'm done collecting - I have a great library - but this will be the one I begin with.

I did go to the poor reviews to see the complaints and am glad I did - so I can be very careful with the binding. But given it came in it's own box, even if it falls apart, I have a place to store it safely. It sounds as though a creative and artsy idea has not been rugged enough - as for me, I didn't care. The contents of the book are all that's important. I'm a tactile person, and while I use kindle, I like to flip through a book in my hands and luxuriate over photos, be bad and fold down corners, and such. I see that experienced people have enjoyed this book, so I am glad to have it, fragile or not.
17 people found this helpful