Suzanne and I went to the first “Lab” (aka class) at Local: Mission Eatery. They had a guest presenter from Sour Flour in to tell us *ALL* about natural starters. There’s way more to know about starters than I was aware. Way more.

Class started off by the instructor putting a couple loaves of bread in the oven and describing what went into each.

He spent some time talking about the oven and it’s effects on the bread (temperature, humidity, the baking stone, etc.).

He talked a lot about care of starters. There’s so much to it: hydration ratios, feeding schedules, type of flour. It seems to be as big an undertaking and effort as a child or puppy. These folks even have names for their starters. Frankly it was getting a little creepy how they were anthropomorphizing them!

This loaf was interesting.  It had been touching the other in the oven at first and he pulled them apart the first time he checked them. This resulted in it “oozing out” (That’s a technical bread baking term?) resulting in a loaf that looked something like a turtle.

And the final result.  Turtle-looking or not, it turned out well.

Despite hearing far more about starters than I wanted to know or even thought possible, the class was fun. We did learn some interesting things, and got to sample some yummy bread. My biggest takeaway was that I should continue buying bread at a bakery, made by people who take it seriously. Like the folks at Sour Flour.

I’ll be eating at Local soon. The menu looks good and I’ll post my impressions of the food here.

Suzanne wrote a humorous account of the class based on our discussion afterwards. Go read it.

As a followup point, the guy who taught the class runs Sour Flour, which will be setting up retail operations. Check them out.

Local: Mission Eatery is located in the Mission, on 24th St. between Folsom and Shotwell.