Daniel Leader may not be a household, but Bread Alone, his family organic bakery might be. The bakery, which began in the 80s, sold wood-fired loaves at their Catskills bakery. They currently do so through farmers markets in the area. Their fermentation process creates bread that is “better for you, tastes great and lasts plenty long—without preservatives.”

Dan is a James Beard Award-winning visionary, whose groundbreaking books Bread Alone and Local Breads are both IACP Award winners. His 2019 book, Living Bread, brought home a James Beard Award. He’s just published A Slow Rise: Favorite Recipes from Four Decades of Baking with Heart by Daniel Leader with Lauren Chattman.

The heart of Dan’s baking philosophy is his embrace of soft-skill baking—seeing, feeling, smelling, and even listening to your dough—over science-based techniques promising the perfect loaf. You’ll notice that in his recipes, which will appear on this site shortly.

I caught up with him recently to ask him our Guest Foodie queries.   

Which food product or gadget would you never give up? My aga stove

Describe a typical at-home meal. We like looking through cookbooks and picking recipes, usually simple dishes with a rustic feel. We like variety so we make a lot of different things. This week included chicken in mustard sauce, a cheese soufflé, and a spicy sausage soup.

What do you like to serve when you entertain?

Again, we are not fancy eaters so we tend to cook for others what we like. We tend to have smaller dinners with just 2-4 guests. We are lucky to have many wonderful farms nearby and tune our cooking to what’s available.

Describe your “last meal?”

Soup, sourdough bread, salad, and a ripe peach.

What food is your secret guilty pleasure?

I love fruit tarts with homemade gelato.

Describe your best childhood cooking memory

Watching my grandmother make strudel

What is your go-to neighborhood restaurant?

We go to Tinder Hearth in Brooksville, Maine

What is one food product most people don’t know about, but should?  

Buckwheat! I love to make buckwheat bread, muffins, crepes and cookies

Describe your worst kitchen disaster and how (if possible) you saved it: 

I almost lost our sourdough once as a baker put all our starter in a previous batch. Luckily the sourdough bucket hadn’t been washed and with a little warm water we scraped the little bits into the water and with a light feeding of whole wheat flour we had a sourdough thriving within 10 hours.

Who was your most influential mentor?

Basil Kamir-French sourdough baker

You can connect with Dan on Instagram here and here.

 

 

— Bonnie Tandy Leblang