Manna From Heaven

There's excess and then there's deplorable excess. I recently read about a certain type of bread made at a bakery in England selling for thirty U.S. dollars a loaf. Celebrities such as Prince Charles and Elizabeth Hurley are avid fans of what must be the best bread ever; either that or they're victims of the best product marketing ever. An ingredient listing would have one think they were partaking of manna from heaven instead of what turns out to be a rather ordinary loaf of sourdough. Tom Herbert, the creator of the "golden loaf" reports he uses only the best possible ingredients, therefore explaining the high price; salt that has been harvested in the same area for centuries, (the same could be said for most salt), grain, the likes of which was fed to the Roman armies, and last but not least, local spring water. Apparently that consists of local tap water, hard tap water at that. He and his staff then knead and shape the dough after a double rising process. That pretty much describes any good baker's bread making technique. My mother's sweet dough recipe, which has received rave reviews, consists of the finest local ingredients and takes two days to make. I've been sitting on a veritable goldmine. Number for Prince Charles please!