If you’re a bread lover, a Francophile, or both, then you’ve heard of Poilâne. It began as a humble bakery opened in 1932 on a sleepy corner of Paris’ romantic Saint-Germain-des-Prés—when the Left Bank was the Left Bank! There, Pierre Poilâne created beautiful breads using traditional techniques, selling sourdough boules to impoverished artists in exchange for paintings of bread. Today, Poilâne is helmed by Pierre’s granddaughter Apollonia, who inherited her family’s bread empire at the age of 18 after her parents died in a tragic helicopter accident in 2002. Since then, Apollonia, a Harvard graduate, has successfully brought Poilâne into the 21st century. She has expanded the bakery to three retail locations in Paris and one in London, as well as creating an e-commerce business so the most fervent fans can have Poilâne breads overnighted (for a price), as Ina Garten, Martha Stewart and a range of restaurants from Europe to L.A. often do.
Now, you don’t even need to pay those hefty courier fees to get your Parisian bread fix: you can make it yourself. Later this fall, Apollonia Poilâne will release her debut cookbook, Poilâne: The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery (Rux Martin Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $40). Recipes include the greatest hits, like the sourdoughs and the croissants sold in Poilâne stores every day, but also more creative uses for leftover bread like bread crumb tabbouleh or bread granola. The book also provides a history and insight into what really goes on behind the scenes at Poilâne.
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