Village Bakery Cafe. A slice of Paris in Amarillo

Have you ever dreamed of waking up in Paris and beginning the day in a sidewalk
cafe with a flaky croissant and raspberry preserves, cafe au lait, and fresh
squeezed orange juice? My wife, Phyllis, awakened one Saturday morning after
dreaming that and lacking the time or funds to travel to Paris, we began
searching Amarillo for the French breakfast in her dream. We found the cafe au
lait at Roasters, a recently opened coffee house that surprisingly roasted their
own beans. Encouraged, we began dropping by local bakeries and by late morning
realized that the flaky croissant and fresh juice would have to wait until she
had a repeat of the wonderful dream. Or would we? Although Phyllis was a
surgical nurse she had always loved to bake. Occasionally when we were out of
town and dined at a cute artisan bakery cafe she would comment that she "had
always wanted to have a place like that and in fact had an exact mental picture
of what she would want it to look like". Phyllis was working for Dr. Cesar
Guerra at the time and we knew he would be retiring soon. What perfect timing
and how hard could it be to open and run a small place like she had in mind.
Phyllis could do a little baking, I could probably learn to keep the books and
"voila", we could enjoy those flaky authentic croissants on leisurely Saturday
mornings. Within a couple of months, our home was full of used bakery equipment
and Phyllis had transformed our kitchen into a very small artisan bakery where
she could practice. We had a dough sheeter and 30 quart mixer in what once was
the breakfast room but only very small ovens. When she had a large batch ready
to bake our kids could be seen running pans of risen dough all around the
neighborhood to be baked in cooperative neighbor's ovens. Soon we met a very
good baker in Colorado who told us about the baker's life. This was before we
opened but after it was too late to turn back. He said that a baker goes to work
very early and finishes very late. Goes home and gets in the shower and sits
down. When the hot water runs out, he gets dressed and goes back to work. His
statement did not affect Phyllis but after hearing it my mind was filled with
one word. Oops. We exercised our faith and went ahead with the plan.  

Village Bakery Cafe opened on December 18, 1994 and thirteen years later, I can
count on one hand the number of times that we have strolled in the front door on
a Saturday morning to leisurely enjoy those authentic flaky croissants. We have
enjoyed hundreds of them, but most often on the run. Long before we opened, we
began to meet other owners of artisan bakery cafes around the country. Without
exception, the owners were all very warm, helpful and encouraging. Typically
they would give us a tour and offer advice on starting and running our
operation. Phyllis has now visited wonderful artisan bakeries in San Francisco
and Sonoma California, Portland, Oregon, Phoenix, Dallas and Austin, Colorado
Springs, and Crested Butte, Minneapolis, New York City, and Chicago and has
baked in many of them. She plans to bake at one in Washington DC this fall. In
turn she has hosted prospective bakery cafe owners from Colorado Springs and San
Francisco at our bakery to help them get started. They are now in business and
doing well. Phyllis has trained at the National Baking Center, San Francisco
Baking Institute, and the French Pastry School under some of the foremost
bakers in the country. We found that the artisan baking community although close
knit is more interested in educating bakery owners about their craft than
keeping company secrets. The "mission" is advancing the craft. 

Many years ago before the industrial revolution, all breads and pastry were
artisanal because they were all made from raw ingredients, mixed and produced
by hand and by-in-large baked in wood or coal fired ovens. This bread was
generally a hearty loaf with a thick crust that was leavened with a sour levain
or some other type of starter. Like with great wine and cheese, these great
breads are a result of a fermentation process. This fermentation imparts flavor
and texture to the bread. The pastry was light and flaky with layers of butter
in between tasty dough that was leavened in a manor similar to the bread. The
Europeans continued that tradition while we Americans were gradually programmed
to think that bread is a rectangular, pre-sliced white loaf that is made in a
large factory, loaded with preservatives and stuffed in a plastic bag. What
about the crust (crust is the outside skin of the bread that artisan bakers go
to great lengths to make � well� crusty)? What is the point of making crust just
to destroy it with a plastic bag? We have been made to believe that crust is
just the brown part of white bread that many people cut off before eating their
Spam or peanut butters sandwiches. I once wadded up a loaf of white bread in the
bag and ended up with a ball of dough that took up about a third of the bag. We
even see soft white bread shaped as and called a baguette. A real French
baguette is not sold in a plastic bag on the green light special two for $1.59.
At the same time, we were taught to believe that a croissant is either a pop and
serve crescent roll or something resembling a croissant that you buy by the
dozen at the local wholesale club and that pastry is akin to a Twinkie. Until a
recent government crackdown most of the aforementioned products were full of
partially hydrogenated oils and chemicals that only a scientist would
understand. We use a variety of starters to leaven our bread and pastry
including a sourdough levain, poolish, sponge and preferments. All of these are
a combination of flours (we use unbleached and unbromated flours made for
artisan baking), water and fresh yeast. They are all allowed to ferment
overnight. We feed our sourdough levain twice a day. In the trade this levain is
called the "Mother" and we take very good care of our "Mother". Let me dispel a
myth about sourdough starters. If you have ever had friends that baked bread
with a sourdough starter they may have commented about the longevity of their
sourdough starter saying something like "my starter has been alive since 1804
when Lewis and Clark carried it from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
Legend has it that Sacagawea even baked a loaf or two with it". In reality, a
starter that is a month old can be as effective as one that has been fed for one
hundred years. Artisan bread baking is a science as changes in temperature,
humidity, yeast spores in the air, and protein levels in different flours and
other factors, require adjustment in fermentation times and possibly the
formulas themselves to insure a quality result. Authentic viennoiserie
(breakfast pastry) is made with real butter, not shortening or vegetable oil. In
pastry, we use European style butter that has less hydration and we use American
style in cakes, pies and meals. We use about a thousand pounds per month.

The word artisan is actually a noun meaning "a skilled worker or craftsman" and
Village Bakery Cafe has been blessed with many great employees that are indeed
artisans. We sent two of our employees to the French Pastry School in Chicago
for training last year. They are qualified and committed to the artisan concept.
In recent years "artisan" has been transformed into an adjective that confers
the "hand made" title to a product or service. You often hear of artisan
furniture, cheese, wine, and of course baking. Our secondary school English
teachers would probably prefer we use the word artisanal but it is really not a
very appetizing word especially with the West Texas pronunciation atris-anal.
Nope. Fortunately, in the last fifteen years in the United States artisan baking
has grown tremendously in popularity. The movement actually began in France when
the French realized that their bread industry had begun to take shortcuts and
that they were in danger of losing one more special thing that makes their
country unique. We in the Texas Panhandle certainly wouldn't take kindly to a
synthetic steak. Artisan bakers across France joined together to promote their
craft. Some years later, the movement reached our shores and the Bread Baker's
Guild of America was born. The BBGA is an organization of commercial and serious
home bakers that bake using traditional European methods. Phyllis has been
involved in the BBGA for years and recently attended an educational event called
Camp Bread in San Francisco and sponsored by the Guild. 

At Camp Bread in addition to education, the United States Coupe du Monde or
"Bread Olympics" team was chosen. Three individuals who won regional baking
competitions were chosen for the team. There were a total of fifty four
countries that competed regionally to become one of twelve teams that will
compete for the world team title in Paris next year. The competition is held
every three years in Paris and U.S. teams have finished first, second, and first
in the last three competitions. In the baking world, this would be the
equivalent of a French football team winning the Super Bowl! We are good friends
with Didier Rosada the trainer of the U.S. Team as well as Craig Ponsford who is
a member of the 1996 team and the Chairman of the BBGA. A quick note about
Didier�He and his wife Martine are originally from France. A couple of years ago
we invited them to Amarillo and he and Phyllis baked together for a couple of
days. We presented him with a black cowboy hat and rope, took them to a feedlot
"a sea of cows" and rodeo and they got to see a rattlesnake on the road. They
had never been to Texas and this was the true Texas experience for them. Phyllis
attended practice sessions in San Francisco before the 2005 competition and we
have become friends with several other members of past teams. We attended the
Coupe du Monde in 2005 and let me say that it was incredible. Like watching
Michael Jordan play basketball even a novice would appreciate the talent the
world's best artisan bakers displayed. Each team member participated in a
category. The categories are bread, viennoiserie, and artistic. Our team was
Jeff Yankellow from Phoenix, Jory Downer from Evanston, Illinois, and William
Leaman from Seattle. The coach was Tim Foley from Stevensville, Michigan. The
team has eight hours to complete their products from the time they begin
weighing out ingredients. William Leaman who was our competitor in artistic made
a one meter square design complete with Mount Rushmore, the Golden Gate Bridge,
the Statue of Liberty, and a bald eagle with an eighteen inch wingspan. All of
this was made out of dough and contained all natural ingredients. It was as
intricate as designs made from chocolate or sugar but bread dough is not nearly
as cooperative. Chocolate and sugar do not rise. We plan to attend the Coupe du
Monde in 2008 and are looking forward to another great competition. If you ever
get the chance to go to France be sure to take advantage of it. The food is
incredible, the countryside beautiful and we found the people to be welcoming
and warm.

We refer to Village Bakery Cafe as an artisan bakery cafe which implies that all
of the food is made by hand from pure premium raw ingredients, which is in fact
the way that Phyllis and her staff do it. Grilled chicken, smoked meats,
champagne mustard, salad dressings, chicken broth for soups, and many other
items are all made in house with fresh herbs and other fresh ingredients. Along
the way we learned that a restaurant can buy almost any food item in almost any
form. Before our food service salesmen realized how resolute Phyllis was about
her craft, they tried to sell us some pre-baked and pre-cooked items. Did you
know that if you want to serve biscuits you can buy flour, baking powder, salt,
sugar and buttermilk and make them or you can buy unbaked biscuits, partially
baked biscuits, almost baked biscuits, microwaveable pre-baked biscuits and
probably over baked biscuits as well. In addition, food service companies offer
many other baked goods and other food items that are partially or fully cooked.
Should we believe that placing a frozen factory made, food service croissant or
baguette in the oven is artisan baking? Is thawing out pre-grilled food service
chicken artisan cooking? Should a real artisan bakery even use bread mix, cake
mix or other mixes? Until Congress appoints an "Artisan Czar" these questions
will have to be answered by our taste buds. Many people are demanding fresh,
hand made baked goods and food and considering the short time we are on this
earth who can blame them. If our business was located in San Francisco or New
York City it could be sustained selling bread and pastry, but in a smaller city
like Amarillo it is necessary to offer a wide variety of products from Coeur a
la Cr�me to King Ranch Chicken Casserole, Cranberry Brioche to Angel Biscuits,
and Chocolate Mousse Torte to Cobbler. In the beginning, we baked bread, some
pastry and dessert and served sandwiches, one soup and salad daily. Now� now
maybe this would be an appropriate time to refer you to our website which is
www.villagebakerycafe.com. There you will find an almost complete listing of our
products as well as pictures of the last Coupe du Monde. Providing a wider
variety of products is a challenge, but pleasing customers is very rewarding.

Artisan baking is becoming more popular in Texas and our local restaurant
patrons are beginning to expect great bread at the beginning of their meals as
well. Bread often establishes our first impression of the restaurant's food.
Currently, Roasters Coffee and Tea serves our breakfast pastry, OHMS and
Carolina's serve our ciabatta which is rustic Italian bread with a delicate
crust and chewy texture that results from a formula with greater hydration and
added olive oil. Lincoln's serves our foccacia, also Italian bread that is
liberally drizzled with olive oil and stuffed with fresh rosemary. El Manatial
uses our baguettes for tortas, and BL Bistro serves sandwiches on our
multi-grain pan bread. 

By the way, most bread is named for its shape such as baguette, a cylindrical
loaf, ciabatta which is shaped like a slipper and boule which refers to a round.
The names have very little to do with the formula used to make them and in turn
little to do with the flavor. Again, much of the flavor in bread is imparted
during the fermentation process. 

Fortunately, Village Bakery Cafe is not the only artisan bakery in town.
Francois Gauclain has Frank's Bakery on Western Street and he produces great
bread, viennoiserie and other items. He has baked for many years in the methode
traditionnel or artisan method and is also something that we will never be�a
real Frenchman. Hopefully in the years to come other artisan bakeries will open
here and artisan bread and pastry will become as popular here as hamburgers or
maybe even Mexican food. In Amarillo we are blessed to have several very good
locally owned restaurants that serve good fresh food. Amarillo's unique local
restaurants and other businesses contribute greatly to the city's personality
and help make our city even more special. These businesses set us apart from
Lubbock and other cities of our size. Lets face it, when we travel we are
generally seeking a unique experience and the chain experience is generally the
same no matter where you are. Folks that travel to or through our city have the
opportunity to experience something different. We have customers that live from
coast to coast but our favorites are locals and let's face it, our city's
greatest asset is its people. They are friendly, hard working, fun-loving and
loyal. Amarillo people love to support homegrown business. You would have to
look no further than the boarded up Krispy Kreme building and the shiny new
Donut Stop to gauge Amarillo resident's loyalty to local business. When God, The
Greatest Artisan of All, created man, I would think that it was an "artisan" as
well as divine creation. Genesis Two certainly implies that He made woman by
hand out of one of Adam�s ribs (maybe that is why women, like other artisan
creations are so unique and beautiful). It seems that He took extra care when
He made Amarillo residents. 

From the beginning, Phyllis wanted to have a bakery cafe where people could go
and feel that they were in another place like San Francisco or a sidewalk cafe
in France. Village Bakery Cafe will continue to produce many products that are
not easily found outside of larger cities and work to stay at the forefront of
trends in artisan baking and cafe cuisine. We will also work hard to advance the
craft that artisan baking is. Someday when we have passed the bakery cafe on to
the next generation of artisan bakers I envision us spending Saturday mornings
at a sidewalk cafe table in Wolflin Village enjoying a flaky croissant with
raspberry preserves, fresh juice and cafe au lait and imagining that we are
once again in Paris.