Chicago award-winning baker Greg Wade’s ‘Bread Head’ guides readers on a journey from farm to loaf

In his new book “Bread Head,” 34-year-old baker Greg Wade generously offers pages of professional tips and trade secrets he has accumulated over the years working at top Chicago restaurants such as Girl and the Goat and Publican Quality Bread, which added an in-person shop to its illustrious production this spring at 1759 W. Grand Ave.

Since 2014, Wade’s Publican-branded wares have graced some of Chicago’s finest restaurant tables, which helped him win a 2019 Outstanding Baker Award from the James Beard Foundation — one of the top honors of the restaurant world. Now the bakery has its own 4,200-square-foot West Town home, with expanded offerings like sandwiches and an exclusive menu of pastries for walk-in customers.

Happily, Wade’s book ($45, W.W. Norton & Co.) rolls with a friendly, informal tone. And that “Bread Head” title is more than just a nod to the Grateful Dead’s fan base. Wade offers a full-page “New Baking Manifesto” that calls up their song lyrics to guide the home baker. At the top: “I need a miracle every day,” the hit from their 1978 studio album “Shakedown Street.” To Wade, the phrase is “pretty much the most appropriate statement about making bread ever.”

The new book, which hit shelves Tuesday and is cowritten by Rachel Holtzman (whose past cookbook collaborators include The Publican’s Paul Kahan, Stephanie Izard and Shaquille O’Neal), reveals all. I met with Wade one day after his shift at Publican Quality Bread and asked why he’s sharing his secrets. “That’s definitely something that I’m going for,” Wade said. “We don’t hide anything.

“I try to give people qualitative identifiers like, ‘Your dough should double,’ or, ‘Your dough should feel like this or look like this,’” Wade said. “But also quantitative measures like, ‘It should take this amount of time or your dough should be this temperature.’”

He shares formulas on how to calculate the dough’s target water temperature, ingredient percentages by weight, plus sources for those precise ingredients, along with help troubleshooting and scaling recipes up and down.

But baking and pastry is not only about recipes and percentages. A lot of the craft is performed intuitively, and by feel, and Wade wants to teach that too. Naturally leavened, long-fermented doughs can seem rebellious and willful, like a school-age kid, finding its way. “Please rise; please be what I want,” pleads Wade in the book’s introduction, standing next to the oven where the loaf he has nurtured into existence now meets its final fate in the bake.

As he says early in the book, “Baking bread sits at the intersection of science and alchemy, technique and intuition.” Wade hopes to guide you on the journey from farmer to loaf.

Some of those farmers, in Wade’s world, are Marty Travis and his son Will, from Spence Farm in Fairbury and Harold Wilken from Janie’s Farm & Mill in Ashkum, who have worked to grow organic hybrid and heirloom grains at their central Illinois farms, and to help traditional farmers transition to organic production.

“It’s the healthiest way to make bread, not only for us, but also for the environment,” Wade said.

Along the way, Wade provides a huge variety of recipes, not only for the tangy, chewy, rustic loaves, but also some incredible (and intricate) pastries, quick breads, cookies and desserts. I made a fantastically tender galette with Wade’s oat flour-based pie dough and some farmers market peaches immediately upon reading his recipe.

Of course, he teaches his methods on how to make, maintain and revive a sourdough starter. He tackles live fire baking in a chapter called “Fire on the Mountain,” introducing bagels, pretzels and pizza to the wood oven; and takes us on a global journey (or “Long, Strange Trip”) through traditional breads using lesser-known grains from India, northern Africa and Mexico.

Ultimately, a book like “Bread Head” exists for many reasons, and not just for students of sourdough.

“Bread-making is intensely personal, and it takes a long time to master,” Wade said. “You need to be patient with yourself and patient with the dough. But if you read through the book and you’re able to dig through the recipe, you’re gonna have a great foundation for being able to express yourself on your own.”

Get copies of “Bread Head” and food from the book at The Publican, 837 W. Fulton St., during a bake sale and book signing starting 9 a.m. Oct. 9.

Lisa Futterman is a freelance writer.

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