The owners of Le Bal Cafe on bread-making essentials (including three key bread books) and great coffee and beer from the Paris area
OBJECTS
Mandoline »
Razor »
“I love my mandoline – it’s my favourite thing in the kitchen. But I didn’t have a razor for making bread so I took the blade from my mandoline and now I can’t get it back in. In the end I bought a proper razor: you cut the dough to let the steam out – otherwise it would explode.” – Alice
Proving baskets »
“I used to prove my bread in colanders with a tea towel, which you can do. But it’s better to have proper proving baskets.” – Alice
Dough bucket »
Thermometer »
“These are some other things that are useful if you’re serious about making bread.” – Alice
Chemex coffeemaker »
A glass pour-over coffeemaker manufactured in Massachusetts, favoured by many new-wave baristas and coffee enthusiasts. “Anselme travels with his chemex,” says Alice. “He’s actually taken it around to Sunday lunch at his parents’, to ensure the coffee is good.” Do they get offended? “No, they’re generally intrigued,” says Anselme, “or they play along to humour me.”
Hario scales »
Super-precise coffee scales with a timer built in.
INGREDIENTS
Belleville coffee »
Great Paris coffee roaster which Anselme helped set up. He has two bags of Kochere in the kitchen when we visit and brews some up for us in a Chemex: it’s incredibly good. You can buy it from the website. If you’re in London, you can usually find bags at Lyle’s in Shoreditch.
Deck & Donoghue beer »
Really good beer brewed in the suburbs of Paris by friends of Alice and Anselme. We tried the excellent Mission pale ale.
Za’atar »
“Anselme loves za’atar. That’s why the floor is stained, because he walks around eating it.” – Alice
Urfa biber »
“My barista brought this back from Turkey. It’s a pepper but tastes a bit like raisins.” – Alice
Shichimi togarashi »
“I love this Japanese spice mix. The one I have is chilli, sesame, dried yuzu and seaweed.” – Alice
BOOKS
Tartine Bread, Chad Robertson and Elizabeth Prueitt »
“I’ve had a look at quite a few books about bread-making but Chad Robertson is definitely the god. I have all three of his Tartine books.” – Alice
Breads from the La Brea Bakery, Nancy Silverton »
“Nancy Silverton founded the La Brea bakery in LA and her writing about bread is really interesting – she says that if you want to do it you have to devote a lot of your time to it.” – Alice
Paul Hollywood’s Bread, Paul Hollywood »
“I love Paul Hollywood. His books are really good and he’s great at explaining things. We used to make his soda bread with stout at the restaurant – it only takes 20 minutes.” – Alice
Plenty More, Ottolenghi »
“We’ve been eating a lot of Middle Eastern food at home recently and I bought some of the Ottolenghi books I didn’t already have for inspiration.” – Alice
A Work in Progress, Rene Redzepi »
“I just got the Noma three-books-in-one. There’s very little I can do in there because I don’t have a vacuum-packing machine, but I’ve made a couple of oils with my Thermomix.” – Alice
