Jim Drohman

Le Pain de Coin is what happens when an iconoclastic personality takes up the art of bread baking. We first encountered artisan baker Etienne Leroy at the Wednesday farmers market in the little Bearnaise walled town of Navarranx, where a queue of eager shoppers were waiting to snap up the last of his offerings. His most popular bread is the round whole-wheat country loaf known as miches but his market table was also covered with breads made with barley flour, others of whole wheat dotted with raisins or olives or rye flour with walnuts. We secured half of a giant country loaf, the only choice remaining by the time we reached the front of the line, and, immediately tearing off and tasting a hunk, found it excellent.

It turns out that all these lovely breads are made by Etienne in a bakery of his own construction on his farm nestled in the wooded slopes above the town of Salies de Béarn. In his fournil (or baking workshop) he takes an uncompromising approach to baking the best bread he possibly can. His ingredients come largely from the area within 10 minutes of his oven, from farmers working organically to raise ancient varieties of wheat requested by Etienne. The wood that fuels his oven he secures from the forest lands of the farm. His approach to bread baking is decidedly old fashion and artisan: he uses only sour starters, and favors very long, slow fermentation. And he only makes traditional styles of bread, refusing to offer a baguette.