Bringing back the craftsmanship of European baking
New European Baking focuses on the artists and bakers who are trying to do something different by adding a new perspective to the craft in Europe.
When Laurel Kratochvila met her now-husband, he was running a bar and bookstore in Prague.
The pair moved to Berlin to open another branch, but the Berlin store struggled, especially up against the likes of Amazon and other online bookstores.
So, Kratochvila started baking to drum up business. And it worked. She would make bagels, primarily, but also breads and pastries. It became so successful, that she soon required a proper baking license to ensure she was legally allowed to continue.
So, she moved to France for three years to study.
“I was a self-taught baker,” Kratochvila, who worked as a food designer on Unorthodox, told The AJN over Zoom.
“And when I learned all of this great French technique, I was able to bring it back and apply it to this really home-style baking that I was doing in my café in Berlin.”
Kratochvila said she grew up in the kitchen with her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
“I probably shouldn’t say this but we’re not very good cooks in our family,” she laughed. “But we’re really good bakers. I was always encouraged to play with the Kitchen Aid or use the oven, which was quite funny because my mum was always so nervous about other dangers, but the kitchen was free rein.”
The bakery is so successful that Kratochvila felt compelled to write a cookbook all about the new style of European baking – prioritising the craftsmanship of the past and favouring regional, traditional treats rather than mass-produced pastries.
New European Baking focuses on the artists and bakers who are trying to do something different by adding a new perspective to the craft in Europe.
“European baking is changing for the better,” Kratochvila reflected. “[The book] is both looking back and looking forward, and I wanted to highlight some of the people who are doing it. When I moved here, I was always tempted to bake professionally, but I didn’t know how. And the book has different essays with bakers around Europe who either have atypical backgrounds – they were doing something else, and they made a professional change – or have a really interesting perspective.”
New European Baking takes readers and bakers across the European continent from French croissants to nutty baklava Danishes – a twist on the modern Danish. But at the heart of it all, is the Jewish spark.
As Kratochvila has said, there’s a revival of traditional Ashkenazi baking happening across Europe – she refers to it as the “babka effect”.
And some of the recipes in the book are extremely sentimental to Kratochvila.
“If I had to choose a favourite, it would be my version of jagodzianki, which is like a jammy, berry pull-apart,” she shared.
“I live about an hour from the Polish border, so I go there during the summer, and they sell the most delicious slightly sweetened fresh blueberries. It’s a slightly sweet break, with crunchy streusel and I love it so much.”
New European Baking is available to purchase online.
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