Nancy Silverton Biography:

Nancy Silverton is the name behind the American Bread Revolution. It is her passion for traditional hand crafted artisan breads with a distinctive texture and taste that changed people’s whole perception of bread. The revolution spread from Los Angeles to the rest of California and finally to the rest of the USA.

Nancy was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her first venture into food was as an 18 year old studying liberal arts at California State University when she began working as a vegetarian cook in her dormitory kitchen.

After apprenticing at a small northern Californian restaurant Nancy attended the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London. The turning point in her career occurred after she completed a series of pastry courses in France. Soon after Nancy was appointed head pastry chef at the celebrated Spago restaurant in Beverley Hills where she was responsible for developing the highly acclaimed desserts.

In 1989 when Nancy and partners were planning on opening a new restaurant, Campanile, in Los Angeles, they realised if they were to serve bread that embodied the same level of quality to be reflected in the restaurants menu they would have to make it themselves. With her pastry background Nancy was given the task.

Although a trained pastry chef at that time she was not a specialist baker. With no local experts to turn to Nancy set about teaching herself the art of sourdough bread baking. In the process of building what was to become La Brea Bakery she talked to oven manufacturers, flour millers and bakery consultants; she scoured scientific papers on the properties of sourdough and researched 19th century cookbooks for any information that would bring her closer to making the perfect loaf.

Eventually she hit on the secret. For great bread she needed the right flour, patience and, most importantly, natural leavening. While most bakers use commercial yeast to raise the dough she chose the age-old traditional method of growing one’s own starter. Made from flour, water and organic grapes, this bubbly ‘living’ concoction became her prized possession.

With starter in hand she set up the operation at a friend’s catering company and began to bake. The response to La Brea Bakery was overwhelming and has continued to be one of America’s biggest culinary success stories.

As well as writing six successful cookbooks (including Nancy Silverton’s Breads from La Brea Bakery) she has also received numerous awards including Best New Chefs in 1989, Chocolatier Magazine’s One of the Best Pastry Chefs of the Year in 1995 and more recently Bon Appetit Best of Food & Entertaining ‘Food Artisan’.

Not content with developing great bread Nancy has gone on to demonstrate that La Brea Bakery bread is the basis for the greatest sandwiches and the “sandwich night” that she created at Campanile restaurant a decade ago has become an LA ritual. As one of LA’s biggest food celebrities, she now hosts nights at two other LA restaurants.