Maxime Bussy – a baker as of old

• Located in the 20th arrondissement in central Paris, Maxime's bakery, Le Bricheton ("piece of bread" in military slang), produces bread like in his grandfather's time.
• If modern bakeries start from traditional recipes that they refine with modern methods and ingredients, Maxime adopts a strictly traditional approach.

With his bohemian air and romantic looks, Maxime could pass for a modern-day Don Quixote. And the mills they fight against are those that produce industrial flour. Maxime's determination is to make daily bread without yeast, using old flours, natural yeasts and ancestral methods, thus honoring the traditional French bakery.

For now, he is the only Parisian affiliated with the so-called "peasant bakery", which is to produce a living, healthy and nutritious bread using only grains from locally grown grains. This bread has nothing in common with the French bakery specialties that go around the world, like croissant or baguette.

Water, flour and salt: starting from this simple recipe, Maxime endlessly experiments with new combinations, kneads by hand and feeds his yeast every six hours. This means that Maxime is constantly around the bakery. But he does not see this as a sacrifice, but as a passion.

When did he really realize that his work as a baker has nothing in common with the frozen dough baguette? When a food company approached him with the idea of ​​making a video about his art of kneading.

Out of passion for tradition

“They just wanted images to make them look pretty and then use them in a corporate film to the glory of industrial baking, but there was no question of mentioning my ancient flours, my ferment and my approach. They just wanted the image.", declares Maxime Bussy for www.lesinfluences.fr.

Ancestral knowledge, precise gestures and innovation are the basis of Bussy's master baker. The modern bakery has sacrificed everything to produce industrial bread. Maxime Bussy, on the other hand, believes that baking is a juxtaposition of flours, enzymes and bacteria, with temperature, with the refrigerator, with thermal differences... "The living is the opener of the way. It is life that leads the dance in this profession", he adds.

At the antithesis of our cynical and hurried times, Maxime continues his adventure, at his own pace. His philosophy: "not to rush, to do everything consciously, not to lose sight of something".

Before becoming the passionate bakery owner Le Bricheton, attended baking courses at The Ferrandi School from Paris, then went to Ciudad de Mexico. On his return to France he worked as a waiter in various restaurants. Maxime's first breads were made for the restaurant "Au Passage". He very quickly developed a passion for old flours, ancient grain grinding methods and the live yeasts used to make bread.

Ancestral art revived

Affiliated to the minority of peasant bakers, Maxime Bussy opens up to another world, that of master artisan bakers, a community dedicated to reviving the simple and pure ancestral art of baking. Each has a well-defined place in this group. From the grain grower to the miller and the artisan baker.

The methods of grinding flours are different of the industrial ones. A raw, simple variant, but which preserves the unique taste and properties of the grains ground in this way. The water that Maxime uses does not come from the tap. To use water "alive", Maxime brings it every morning by bicycle from a well in Butte-aux-Cailles, and the salt comes from the salt pan "Salorge de Vertonne".

Even the kneading of the dough is approached traditionally. It is not done with the help of electricity, but everything is done by hand. And because this activity requires a special effort, Maxime Bussy turned to the advice of a physiotherapist who advised him on the positions and gestures during kneading, to protect his body.

All this route justifies the only 4-hour schedule of his bakery. At 17.00:XNUMX p.m., when the small Arizan bakery opens for customers, Maxime has already had a full day. But that does not prevent him from reconfirming his choice of path and his satisfaction: "It's a passion, not a prison".

Photo sources: www.lesinfluences.fr, www.telerama.fr, www.lesresistants.fr.

Article written by Gabriela Dan, Editor of Arta Albă

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