The distinguished author of several landmark bread books, Peter Reinhart has been a leader in America’s artisanal bread movement for more than thirty years. In this James Beard Award-winning book, Peter shares bread breakthroughs arising from study with Paris’s most esteemed bakers, clear instructions on the classic twelve stages of building bread, fifty master formulas for classic breads, and three all-new formulas. He distills hard science, advanced techniques, and food history into a remarkably accessible, engaging resource that is as rich and multitextured as the loaves he presents. This is original food writing at its most captivating, teaching at its most inspiring, and the rewards are some of the best breads under the sun.