rND Bakery: Beyond Wheat - theHumm November 2019

By Sebastian Weetabix

Wherein the hero is identified, a disease is defeated and medicinal food is defined. All this in a thousand words and one picture! (For those coming in late, see my column in the October 2019 issue). Our story resumes with the reminder that celiac disease is a real disorder, not a preference or a sensitivity. It can be difficult to diagnose but even a small amount of (wheat) gluten can be the source of much and long-lasting misery.

Wheat and wheat processing played a key role in the development of urban societies. One need not to go to Vienna to appreciate the cultural benefits of a mid-afternoon coffee accompanied by an example of a pastry chef’s art. It is fitting, therefore, that the hero of this story is not a baker by tradition. Rather, he is a PhD microbiologist who moved to the field of food science. There he acquired a Master’s degree and an interest in the concept of food as medicine. According to Will Spencer, “Medical doctors could not give a consistent definition of health”. Modern medicine is good at treating acute problems but there is little systematic research on food as a programming language for long term health. In part this is a result of the structure of our academic enterprise. Research value is generally measured by the output of research papers. Rewards go to participants with the wit to take on problems that admit to short projects and publishable answers. The eminent chemist Keith Laidler once published a table showing the limits of research problems in chemical kinetics in terms of reaction times; at the upper limit was the “half-life of a graduate student”. Real impact of research is a hard metric and one that does not necessarily produce a quick answer for the departmental promotion committee. Weetabix may comment further on this in another venue, but suffice it to say that people who want to achieve tangible results do not necessarily stay in academe; Will didn’t. His move, motivated by a desire to do something with a tangible impact on health, was not a half-baked fantasy.

Armed with a deep understanding of some of the basic issues and a love of baking going back to his childhood, Will decided to become a professional baker and to learn the practical realities of working with food. There is a lot of “art” to baking, and even in modern industrialized food systems the final process of converting ingredients to bread has a unique sub-culture. There are aspects of the process that are not totally documented, and even though very large bakeries can make a consistent product by rote, this is largely the result of forcing farmers and millers to produce a uniform industrial ingredient called flour. Wheat flour as we know it is shelf-stable and highly consistent in its behavior. It has been blended to uniformity and owes its stability to the removal of both the germ and bran — components that are both nutritious and troublesomely variable across different varieties of grain. Artisanal bakers who work with real whole wheat flour know that there is significant batch-to-batch variability, and that flours as received at the bakery can give significant variances in performance. Experienced bread makers learn to make minor adjustments “on the fly” to make a fairly consistent product, or they work with a standardized flour — and once you leave the world of wheat, the practical lessons of working with grain varieties need to be relearned. So, back to Will, who decided to bake up batches of medicine in the form of breads.

First things first: learn the craft of baking at a commercial scale and don’t forget that taste and texture define foods. Food as medicine cannot succeed on the “eat it because it’s good for you” premise. In fact, a lot of food is eaten simply because it tastes good, and very little gets past the lips if it doesn’t. Will’s motivation was reinforced by fond memories of his mother’s baking and the realization that he could combine palatability with real health benefits. The mother of a friend suffered from celiac disease and so the big idea acquired practical focus — taste, mouth-feel and a happy feeling could be delivered in a truly gluten-free bread. That was eight years ago… instant success takes time.

Learning how to bake at scale is essential. This is important because food has to be affordable and bakers have to eat. Basic arithmetic determines the scale (number of loaves and price per loaf) needed to support any bakery. The move from product to production is complex. Baking is both capital- and labour-intensive. Fortunately there is some camaraderie among bakers, and Will was able to learn “hands-on” from Morty White at Bagel Bagel — an artisanal producer that still manages to make an impressive volume of bagels.

With the basics under control, Will was able to use space in some established bakeries where he could do recipe development and learn the practical aspects of turning the recipes into a palatable product. For over three years, Will struggled with the variability of doughs and baking methods. Pat Graham (True Loaf Bakery) provided advice, perspective and encouragement. Obsessively working through the research and development phase, Will took three years to develop a product that was customer-proven in the only way that matters for food: it tasted great. People wanted it for itself — not just for its medicinal benefits.

Four years ago, the opportunity to repurpose part of an institutional kitchen in Smiths Falls brought Will and rND Bakery rndbakery.com to its present home where Will has continued to expand his offerings of gluten-free baked goods to a growing clientele in the Ottawa region. Look for rND Bakery products in health food and specialty stores. Beware: supplies are limited and they sell out quickly. Gluten- and yeast-free, Will’s products have an interestingly short list of ingredients and no added preservatives. Weetabix confirms their shelf life is sufficient to get them from point of purchase to home. He is not celiac but enjoys good bread.

Links for this article at Sebastien Weetabix,

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The Algonquin Ensemble Premieres Stunning New Production - theHumm November 2019

The Algonquin Ensemble has created a stunning new production and it’s coming to the First Unitarian in Ottawa on Saturday, November 30 and to the Almonte United Church on Sunday, December 1. Canadian Winterscapes is a multi-media journey celebrating the untamed beauty and indomitable spirit of a Canadian winter through music, art and photography. With moving pieces from the ensemble’s acclaimed début production Sonic Palette, uplifting arrangements of traditional seasonal repertoi......

rND Bakery: Beyond Wheat - theHumm November 2019