Raymond Calvel (1913
– 30 August 2005) was a
bread
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...
expert and professor of
baking
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred " ...
at
ENSMIC in Paris, France. Calvel has been credited with creating a revival of French-style
breadmaking
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made food ...
, as well as developing an extensive body of research on improving breadmaking technique, including studies of the differences between European and American
wheat flour
Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...
and the development of the ''
autolyse
In biology, autolysis, more commonly known as self-digestion, refers to the destruction of a cell through the action of its own enzymes. It may also refer to the digestion of an enzyme by another molecule of the same enzyme.
The term derives from ...
'', a hydration rest early in the mixing and kneading process designed to relax
gluten
Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in certain cereal grains. Although "gluten" often only refers to wheat proteins, in medical literature it refers to the combination of prolamin and glutelin proteins naturally occurring in all grain ...
in the dough and simplify the kneading process, thereby rendering the dough more extensible and easier to shape.
He was
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
and
Simone Beck
Simone "Simca" Beck (7 July 1904 – 20 December 1991) was a French cookbook writer and cooking teacher who, along with colleagues Julia Child and Louisette Bertholle, played a significant role in the introduction of French cooking technique ...
's teacher for the bread chapter of
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' is a two-volume French cookbook written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, both from France, and Julia Child, who was from the United States. The book was written for the American market and published ...
volume 2, as well as an advisor to the
Bread Bakers Guild of America during its founding and early competitive efforts in the early 1990s. Calvel also wrote the book ''Le goût du pain'' (translated into English in 2001 as ''The Taste of Bread'') as a summation of his work.
See also
*
Proofing
References
Further reading
*Calvel, Raymond, and Ronald Wirtz (trans.). ''The Taste of Bread''. Springer, 2001, .
*Child, Julia. ''From Julia Child's Kitchen''. New York: Knopf, 1975.
*Child, Julia and Simone Beck. ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'', vol. 2. New York: Knopf, 1970.
*Reinhart, Peter. ''Crust and Crumb''. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1998, .
*Wing, Daniel and Alan Scott. ''The Bread Builders''.
White River Junction, Vermont
White River Junction is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the New England town, town of Hartford, Vermont, Hartford in Windsor County, Vermont, Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,528 at the 2 ...
: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1999, .
External links
Short biography at cooksinfo.comENSMICBread Baker's Guild of AmericaWeb Raymond Calvel in memoriam
1913 births
2005 deaths
French food writers
French chefs
French male writers
20th-century French male writers
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